Princess Diana’s childhood home up for rent – but ‘guests are barred from visiting her island grave’

1 October 2023

Princess Diana’s childhood home is up for rent on an Airbnb-style site – but guests are thought to be barred from visiting her grave on the grounds.

Princess Diana’s childhood home is up for rent on an Airbnb-style site – but guests are thought to be barred from visiting her grave on the grounds

The tragic royal, who was killed in a Paris car smash on 31 August 1997 aged 36, was raised in the Grade I-listed Althorp House, West Northamptonshire, with her two older sisters, Lady Sarah and Lady Jane Spencer, as well as her younger brother, now Earl Charles Spencer, and was buried on an island on the 13,000-acre estate’s Oval Lake.

Earl Spencer, 59, is now letting the house on the Elysian Estates service, The Sun on Sunday revealed.

The business has not disclosed the cost of stays, but the newspaper said guests would be paying “tens of thousands for just a night’s stay at the mansion”, which sleeps 54.

A brochure tells prospective guests: “Althorp offers unparalleled levels of service, privacy and luxury to rival the finest properties in the world.

“Walk in the footsteps of kings and queens, feast or celebrate in spectacular surroundings, marvel at the sense of history and artwork, and slumber in pure luxury.”

Althorp House was built in 1688, and is the Spencer family’s ancestral home.

Along with sprawling grounds, it offers dining halls, a chapel, billiard rooms, priceless art and a picture gallery.

Guests can also be provided with chefs, a helicopter transfer, pianist, shooting events and fireworks via Elysian Estates.

Diana was interred on a small island at the centre of the ornamental lake in the gardens of the house, overlooked by a Doric-style temple bearing her name.

Earl Spencer has said the family chose the secluded location to “act as a buffer against” the “insane and ghoulish”.

No mention of her resting place is made on the hotel-style listing by Earl Spencer, who The Sun said “would run the rule over all rental applicants”.

He was criticised in 2013 for letting Althorp for £25,000 a night to tourists with a travel firm.

And in 2016 Diana’s home was opened to overnight guests to raise money for charity.

Guests were able to stay in the princess’ old bedroom, where she lived before her marriage to Prince Charles, during weekend visits that cost approximately £25,000 per couple or £175,000 for a party up to 18.

The stately 90-room Tudor mansion and grounds are owned by Earl Spencer, and have been in his aristocratic family for 500 years and 18 generations.

Located north-west of Northampton, the 13,000-acre estate has been open to day visitors since 1998, a year after Diana’s death.