Queen Mary’s Diamonds Dazzle at the Palace of Holyroodhouse

The British royals headed north of the border at the end of June for Holyrood Week, their annual residence in Edinburgh, and one of the first big events on the calendar was a traditional palace garden party—complete with Scottish brooches!

King Charles III and Queen Camilla were joined by the Princess Royal and the Duke of Edinburgh for the annual summer garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on Tuesday. For the occasion, Queen Camilla wore a navy coat with gorgeous leafy embroidery, paired with a coordinating hat and a trusty clear plastic umbrella.

On her coat, Camilla pinned a special Scottish-themed brooch in the shape of a stylized thistle. The jewel is one of the larger brooches in the family collection, with an equally big diamond wattage factor.

The brooch originally belonged to King Charles’s great-grandmother, Queen Mary. She wears the jewel as a hat ornament in the photograph above, taken at Balmoral in the summer of 1935. (That’s wee little Queen Elizabeth II sitting in the carriage with her grandparents.)

Elizabeth was the next prominent wearer of the brooch, bringing it out especially frequently in the last years of her reign. Above, she wears the thistle for a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament in 2019.

Queen Camilla made her debut in the thistle brooch in July 2024 at the Holyroodhouse garden party. In fact, she’s worn the brooch for this event for the last three years running.

Here’s a great view of the brooch on Queen Camilla at last year’s garden party, when she wore the jewel on a favorite royal blue coat.

And here’s another look at the brooch on her navy coat this week. She also wore one of her pearl choker necklaces. I think this is the three-row choker with the diamond and amethyst clasp. The shape of the clasp looks like a match to me, and I think the light reflection is obscuring the color of the stone.

Princess Anne was elegant in one of her favorite cashmere coats and a matching shawl over a teal dress. Her accessories included pearl drop earrings, her three-row choker set with small pearls, and, appropriately, her Royal Scots Brooch, which she also wore for last year’s Holyroodhouse garden party.