Queen Camilla Spends a Summer Day Shopping in Ballater With Three Generations of Family
Queen Camilla, 79, was photographed on 17 August 2026 browsing the shops of Ballater, the Aberdeenshire village near Balmoral Castle, accompanied by her sister Annabel Elliot, 77, her daughter Laura Lopes, 48, and her granddaughter Eliza Lopes, 18. The Queen was dressed casually in jeans, a V-neck jumper and a parka jacket, and was pictured carrying two shopping bags and a paper envelope after visits to KT Boutique, a cashmere shop, and AB Yule, a local bookshop. The photographs were credited to GoffPhotos.com and published by Hello! magazine on 18 August 2026. (Hello!)
The trip was described by the Express as a "secret shopping trip," though locals in Ballater are well accustomed to members of the Royal Family visiting the village's shops during the summer months when the family resides at Balmoral. (Express)
This is not the first time Camilla has made the excursion. She was spotted on a similar shopping trip to Ballater in August 2025, again with her daughter Laura and granddaughter Eliza. (Hello!)
Eliza Lopes, born on 16 January 2008, is the daughter of Laura Lopes and the granddaughter of Queen Camilla and her former husband Andrew Parker Bowles. Laura Lopes has three children: Eliza and twins Louis and Gus. Eliza tends to stay out of the public eye, though she has appeared at family occasions — she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2011, when she was three years old. (Hello!)
The Ballater connection runs deep. In April 2005, the then-newlywed Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were photographed sheltering from the rain in the village after opening a new play park. Locals have seen royals in their shops for decades. (Reuters)
Queen Camilla has previously shared outings with her full complement of grandchildren. She attended an ABBA Voyage concert in London before Christmas 2022 with Lola and Freddy Parker Bowles and Eliza, Louis and Gus Lopes. Lola is her eldest grandchild. (Hello!)
What makes the Ballater photographs stand out is their ordinariness. A Queen in jeans and a parka, carrying her own shopping bags through a village high street, with her sister, daughter and granddaughter — it reads less like a royal engagement and more like a family bank-holiday afternoon. The Court Circular, the daily official record of royal engagements, is not the register at work here. This is private time, captured by a press photographer and published for an audience that follows the family closely.
