Who will get what in monarchy's palace merry go round? RICHARD KAY examines the royal residences

His succession from heir to the throne to monarch has happened at lightning speed. Charles developed his love of gardening at Highgrove but the Queen Consort is not very attached, seeing it as Diana's house Camilla stands outside Highgrove, which is Charles's family home near Tetbury in Gloucestershire A view of the gardens at Highgrove in Tetbury, which was purchased from Tory MP and publishing chief Maurice Macmillan on Charles's behalf by the Duchy of Cornwall Camilla with her dog Beth at Highgrove, pictured for an ITV documentary in July charting her guest editorship of Country Life As a bachelor, Charles had quarters there before moving to Kensington Palace after marriage to Princess Diana, followed by an apartment at St James’s Palace on their separation, then settling at Clarence House, the home he inherited from his grandmother the Queen Mother and where he now lives with Queen Consort Camilla. The King is considering handing Balmoral over to the nation to celebrate the memory of his late mother Charles is pictured with Fijian soldiers in October 2020 at his adored Scottish retreat, Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate Balmoral Castle is the royals’ main home on Deeside and where the Queen died on September 8 In other words, it would be treated as the ‘office’ and he would commute there each day up The Mall. It has been suggested Charles would prefer to keep this and use Buckingham Palace for work purposes The Band of the Coldstream Guards in the gardens of Clarence House in London in July last year Then there is the Castle of Mey in Caithness — another of his grandmother’s former boltholes where he likes to spend ten days each summer, Dumfries House, the Palladian mansion in Ayrshire he saved for the nation, Llwynywermod, his Welsh cottage and an estate in Romania. But the absence of a live-in monarch would surely raise questions about the purpose of the daily Changing of the Guard ceremony, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in London Queen Elizabeth II bestows investitures in The Ballroom inside Buckingham Palace in London in October 2008 It was to be run by the Prince’s Foundation and open to the public with Charles using it for five weeks or so each year — and paying rent for the privilege.