Prince Harry describes bizarre tradition at Balmoral he's unlikely to pass down to Prince Archie

The King was officially welcomed to Balmoral on Monday and is set to host members of his family in coming weeks.

While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are not expected to join the royals in Scotland, Prince Harry shared memories from Balmoral in his book, Spare, released in January 2023, including a gruesome tradition.

Harry was just 15 when he stalked and killed his first deer on the Scottish estate and described the moment he underwent his first 'blooding' – an informal initiation ceremony in which someone's face is smeared with the blood of the first deer they have killed.

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The Duke recalled how his guide, a man called Sandy, pushed his head inside the animal's carcass after Harry shot the deer.

"I tried to pull away, but Sandy pushed me deeper," Harry wrote. "I was shocked by his insane strength. And by the infernal smell. My breakfast jumped up from my stomach."

The young Prince was told to let the blood dry on his face but later said he felt he had "been good to nature".

"Managing their numbers meant saving the deer population as a whole, ensuring they’d have enough food for winter," Harry said. "Finally, I'd been good to the community. A big stag in the larder meant plenty of good meat for those living around Balmoral. These virtues had been preached to me from an early age, but now I'd lived them, and felt them on my face. I wasn't religious, but this 'blood facial' was, to me, baptismal."

The royal family's love of hunting dates back centuries, with it being a long-running tradition at Balmoral alongside the annual Boxing Day shoot at Sandringham.

However, in September 2023 it was confirmed that the royals can no longer go hunting, deer stalking or fishing at the five-century-old Abergeldie Estate, located near Balmoral, bringing an end to more than 170 years of tradition.

Does Prince Harry still hunt?

The Duke would regularly participate in the annual shoots at Balmoral and Sandringham but he is thought to have given up the sport.

British primatologist Jane Goodall, who is a close friend of the Sussexes, said in an interview with the Radio Times in 2020 that Harry and Prince William were champions of the natural world "except they hunt and shoot".

Harry and William were criticised for going on a hunting trip in Spain in 2014, the day before William launched an appeal to stop the illegal hunting of wildlife.

Jane added: "But I think Harry will stop because Meghan doesn't like hunting, so I suspect that is over for him."

And in an interview with The Telegraph in 2023, Harry hinted that his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, will not be initiated into blood sports, saying: "It's interesting because so many of those moments have made me the man I am today. Would I encourage Archie to stick his head inside a carcass? Probably not."