Inside King Charles’ incredible home transformation – from run-down pile to breathtaking retreat

When King Charles bought Highgrove House in 1980, it marked the beginning of a life-long passion project that not only tapped into his love of nature, but also provided him with a rural retreat away from the formality of London life. Although he was already passionate about nature, Highgrove was where Charles’ love of gardening truly blossomed.

“In some strange way, when I took on Highgrove, I knew what I wanted to do, even though I had absolutely no experience of gardening or farming and the only trees I had planted had been official ones in very official holes,” the King writes in Highgrove: Portrait Of An Estate.

He created a pioneering kitchen garden at the nine-bedroom Georgian property and with the help of the naturalist Dame Miriam Rothschild, planted a world-renowned wildflower meadow on its 347-acre Gloucestershire estate.

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“I knew I wanted to take care of the place in a very personal way and to leave it, one day, in a far better condition than I had found it,” he once said. “This was unlikely to be very difficult because everything was pretty dishevelled and run-down anyway!”

A passion project for more than four decades, Charles has described Highgrove as “one very small attempt to heal the appalling short-sighted damage done to the soil, the landscape and our souls”.

At Highgrove, Charles also realised his dream of creating Home Farm – now one of the largest organic farms in the UK and the source of ingredients used in Duchy Originals products sold in Waitrose and around the world.

Although it has provided the King with a much-needed sanctuary for more than four decades, Highgrove is by no means a high-security bolthole for him to hide away in. In 1996 he opened its gardens to the public and currently welcomes an incredible 40,000 visitors each year.

“One of my great joys is to see the pleasure that the garden can bring to many of the visitors, and that everybody seems to find some part of it that is special to them,” he has said: "My enduring hope is that those who visit the garden may find something to inspire, excite, fascinate or soothe them.”

Of all the gardens at Highgrove, the four-acre wildflower meadow in bloom is arguably the most breathtaking. TV gardener Monty Don has described it as “Highgrove’s greatest achievement”, explaining, “This is not just because it is astonishingly beautiful in itself and on a scale that is sweepingly grand, but because of the influence it has had across the whole world of gardening.”

In summer, the meadow hums with the sound of bees and other insects among about 130 species of wildflower. It inspired the creation of 60 Coronation Meadows across the UK to mark the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

There are other, equally enchanting gardens to explore at Highgrove. The Carpet Garden, based around a dazzling mosaic-embellished fountain, is a riot of colour that was inspired by the patterns on two Turkish rugs owned by the King.

The more rustic Cottage Garden is filled with pinks, delphiniums and the heady scent of apricot-hued Jude The Obscure roses. The garden is overlooked by an Indian bean tree given to Prince Charles on his 50th birthday by Sir Elton John.

But one Highgrove garden, the Kitchen Garden, is as practical as it is pretty. With green-fingered Camilla by his side, Charles has, says Monty, been able to create a kitchen garden that “looks superbly decorative, combining fruit trees, flowers, herbs and vegetables, but is above all a hardworking plot, producing seasonal organic produce for the household.”

Another highlight of the gardens is the spectacular Thyme Walk, a fragrant avenue featuring multiple varieties of thyme interspersed with marjoram and lined with intriguingly clipped yew trees that are thought to be the inspiration for Charles’ new Topiary Garden at Sandringham.

As well as being a retreat for the monarch and his wife, Highgrove was also a haven for Charles’ sons William and Harry in their younger years. The lush greenery of its gardens provided the perfect playground for the brothers and childhood photographs show them laughing while playing with Charles and their late mother Diana.

In 1988, Charles built a magical treehouse for William and Harry to play in. Nestled in a fern-filled area of the gardens known as the Stumpery, it has a thatched roof and an adorable, holly leaf-shaped door.

In 2015, it was refurbished for the King’s grandchildren to enjoy. As the princes grew up, another secret space provided privacy – although it perhaps was not quite as wholesome as their father’s treehouse. Writing in his memoir Spare, Harry reveals that, in the years following his mother’s death, he and his brother would escape to Highgrove’s substantial cellar.

Jokingly calling it “Club H”, Harry recalls how the windowless space became “the perfect hangout for a teenager”. “It smelt of damp, earth, stone and moss. It smelt of cut flowers, clean dirt… and maybe a hint of beer,” Harry writes.

The ownership of the Duchy of Cornwall was passed on to William when Charles became King, which means that he is now effectively his father’s landlord.

But with the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children happily settled at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor, it is likely Charles and Camilla will continue to enjoy Highgrove’s natural delights for many years to come. For those keen on a burst of colour, look no further than Highgrove’s Sundial Garden, which is at its vibrant best in the summer months.

Throughout June and July, visitors can marvel at the dazzling display of blue, pink and purple delphiniums – King Charles’ favourite flowers. At the centre is the stone sundial that gives the garden its name. A gift from the 10th Duke of Beaufort, it is inscribed with the words, “A shadow round about my face, the sunny hours of day will trace”.

The wonders of Highgrove do not end there. King Charles has a secret woodland retreat – a fairy-tale cottage called The Sanctuary, situated in the estate’s arboretum. The hideaway has a pointed roof and dramatic columns. It was built in 1999 using natural cob, a mixture of Highgrove clay and barley straw, and is a place of “quiet contemplation”, surrounded by varieties of acer, beech and cherry tree.

Off limits to visitors, it is believed that only King Charles and a select handful of his close friends hold the key.