Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Who dines at Highgrove when Prince Charles doesn’t?

I have been inside his gazebo, and I know

Highgrove House Photo: Getty 
issue 22 March 2014

Highgrove is the country house of the Prince of Wales. I write about Highgrove because, although it is not a restaurant, even of the wackiest kind — which can only make me fantasise that Ludwig of Bavaria opened a gay sauna in Neuschwanstein castle — the prince does admit strangers when he is not there and only when he is not there: on Burns Night for instance, or Mothering Sunday, and now, on St David’s Day: a black tie dinner for £95 per face including service.

The dinner is in a custom-built barn in the Hobbit style. It is made for his receptions, so I suppose it is less a barn than a giant all-weather gazebo which they call the Orchard Restaurant. (This is not as terrible a fate as you might imagine for the royal out-buildings: King Henry VIII’s tiltyard at Hampton Court is now a caff).

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