The Evangelical philanthropist, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, had told Queen Victoria after the wedding that "you cannot force people here to be enthusiastic [in England] if they don't choose" and that the enthusiasm of the crowds proved that "the people here value and love a moral court and a happy domestic home". He also reported cries from the crowd: "If you don't treat her well we'll have her back". After Albert's death Victoria drew as much consolation as she could from her domestic ties, yet for her the family over which she now presided herself had lost its anchor. When Vicky visited her at Osborne in February 1862 she told Fritz, who stayed behind in Berlin, that her mother was "as much in love with Papa as though she had married him yesterday". That domestic life continued was confirmed by Count von Moltke when he visited Balmoral in 1863. "It is hard to believe", he wrote back to his wife, "that the most powerful monarch in the world can leave all court life so much behind. It is just plain family life here."

Balmoral in Scotland was one of the remote royal palaces which in itself testified to the domestic focusing of the Victorian royal family. The other was Osborne in the Isle of Wight. Both were miles from London and Windsor Castle. Both were creations of Albert. Both were as important to the Queen in 1901 as they had been when they were first occupied. Having been homes they became sanctuaries. The Queen's year as a widow revolved around them. She spent set times in both, sometimes during the 1860s as much as five months at Balmoral, and was always unwilling to disturb routines that became rituals. Ministers had to visit her there, abandoning London on time-consuming and often inconvenient and difficult journeys. Only Disraeli was excused visits to Balmoral which badly affected his health. When Campbell-Bannerman visited it he compared it with a convent and its climate with that of Siberia.

The castle itself was largely the work of Albert, made possible by a surprise private legacy to the Queen. She and Albert had first visited distant Balmoral in 1848, the year of revolutions, and after the purchase of an old castle and estate the foundation stone of a new Balmoral was laid by the Queen in 1853. Eclectic in style, it was designed to fit its surroundings. The important point about it was, as the Queen put it, that it was "my dearest Albert's own creation, own work, own building, own laying out ... The impress of his dear hand has been stamped everywhere."

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