A look inside the Queen's 6 lavish royal residences
Crown-owned: Buckingham Palace, London, England. Foxtons Estate Agents valued the Queen's headquarters at over £2.2 billion — she could set rent at £565,000/week.
The Palace's value is only likely to increase as it undergoes £369 million worth of renovations.
Crown-owned: Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England. Built under William the Conqueror in the 11th century, Windsor is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. It's the Queen's country residence. She spends most weekends here.
Last month, the Queen unveiled her portrait at Windsor, painted by Henry Ward, to honour her long-standing patronage to the British Red Cross.
Crown-owned: Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland. Holyroodhouse is the Queen's official Scottish residence. It is also where Mary, Queen of Scots, married twice.
In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI came to visit the Queen at the Edinburgh castle — the first state visit to the UK ever made by a Pope.
Crown-owned: Hillsborough Castle, County Down, Northern Ireland. Hillsborough is the Queen's official residence in Northern Ireland, made so after the War of Irish Independence meant she could no longer occupy a royal residence in Dublin.
History was made when Labour MP Mo Mowlam opened to the castle to the public, despite threat from the IRA. Evidence remains of the security compromise — the castle's windows are bulletproof.
Private: Sandringham House, Norfolk, England. Sandringham has remained privately-owned by the Royal Family since it was purchased in 1862 by Queen Victoria.
A firm family favourite, the Queen always spends Christmas and New Year at Sandringham — where she broadcasts her famous annual address to the nation.
Private: Balmoral Castle – Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 50 full-time staff are employed at the fully-functioning estate that houses ponies, deer and Highland cattle.
The Queen is known to invite Britain's Prime Ministers to Balmoral for weekends away, where she engages them in parlour games — an experience that Tony Blair called "a vivid combination of the intriguing, the surreal and the utterly freaky."
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