Queen enjoys lunch at a lodge on the Balmoral estate alongside Philip, Sophie and Edward

The Queen and Prince Philip had lunch at Balmoral with their grandson yesterday as Prince Andrew and Fergie jetted off to Spain amid continuing controversy over his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The monarch, 93, who spends every summer at the Scottish castle, was seen wearing a Balmoral Tartan skirt and quilted jacket for the family gathering, where she was joined by her 11-year-old grandson, James, Viscount Severn.

It came just a day after Prince Andrew left the Aberdeenshire estate as he came under renewed scrutiny over his friendship with Epstein, who was found dead in his cell on Saturday.

It later emerged the prince has gone to Spain for a holiday with his former wife Sarah, the Duchess of York, with the pair spotted touching down in Malaga yesterday afternoon.

Royal insiders said Prince Andrew is starting to ‘panic’ over his links with Epstein, and the Duchess of York wanted to offer her support. 

‘The Duchess insisted she go on holiday with the Duke to look after him and show the world she stands by him,’ an insider told The Sun. 

The Duchess of York was said to have left Balmoral early, amid claims she was ushered out when the Duke of Edinburgh refused to be under the same roof as her.

It is said he accuses her of having publicly humiliated the Queen and the royal family following her divorce from Andrew in 1996.

Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell on Saturday, was accused of arranging to have sex with dozens of underage girls at his residences in New York and Florida.

His body was discovered at 6.30am at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan, hours after a court in New York released 2,000 pages of previously sealed legal documents.

One document repeated the allegation, which the Prince has always denied, that Andrew had sex with a 17 year old girl.

The court papers repeated claims that the Duke slept with Virginia Roberts, 17 at the time and one of Epstein’s ‘sex slaves’, and groped a 21-year-old woman. The Prince denies the claims.

The Queen’s youngest son Prince Edward, 55, and his wife Sophie Wessex, 54, were also thought to be present at Balmoral, though they were not pictured. 

James was seen holding a booster cushion as he stood outside the car with his grandfather Prince Philip, 98, perhaps for use inside the car.

Prince Philip looked stylish in beige trousers and a coordinating sweater, along with a green anorak. 

Dressed in camouflage trousers and a grey t-shirt, James’ appearance came a day after he was spotted fly-fishing with mother Sophie on Tuesday.

The Queen, Edward and Lady Louise Windsor were also spotted going horse riding near the River Dee yesterday. 

This year the traditional grouse shoot, which is an annual fixture in the royal calendar on the Queen’s 50,000-acre Scottish estate, has been called off.

The grouse shooting has been cancelled at Balmoral this year due to a fall in bird numbers.

Yesterday was the ‘Glorious 12th’ of August – the start of the grouse hunting season.

Shooting grouse is relished by the Royal Family on their summer holidays at Balmoral but heavy snowfall at the end of last year – followed by a dry and humid start to this summer – has reduced game bird breeding.

An estate source said: ‘Grouse numbers go up and down but this year they have plummeted.

‘There probably will be no grouse shooting on Balmoral this season. It’s very disappointing. There is still [deer] stalking.’

Other popular activities at Balmoral include horse-riding, picnics and country walks.

One person who may not be disappointed at the grouse shooting is the Duchess of Sussex, who is an active supporter of wildlife conservation and avid animal lover.

A source told The Sun: ‘Meghan is a fish eater and will apparently try her hand at fly fishing which will please Prince Charles as it was his beloved grandmother’s passion.

‘But there will no softening on Meghan’s stance against hunting, any stag or deer hunting fills her with horror.

‘Venison will not be one of her menu choices for sure.’

Meghan Markle ‘flew to Ibiza on a private jet’ with Prince Harry and their son Archie for a five-day break to celebrate her birthday in early August

by Alexander Robertson

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex enjoyed a secret trip to Ibiza to celebrate Meghan’s birthday.

Meghan, who turned 38 on August 4, is thought to have flown to the island with Harry, 34, on a private jet in what would have been three-month-old Archie’s first holiday. 

The royal couple and Archie stayed in a secluded villa away from prying eyes, and travelled with security personnel for the ‘six-day trip’. 

The holiday is thought to have come just days after Prince Harry attended Camp Google in Sicily on July 31 after the tech giant flew him out for its celebrity climate summit. 

MailOnline asked Buckingham Palace if the prince had travelled to Majorca directly from Sicily via private plane, but a spokesman refused to comment.

While in Sicily, Harry is said to have delivered an impassioned speech to other A-list names about the environment and humanitarianism while barefoot.

He is also understood to have stayed on a gas-guzzling superyacht moored near the exclusive Verdura Golf and Spa Resort where the climate change retreat was held.

Other guests were reported to include Leonardo DiCaprio, who runs his own environmental foundation, supermodel Naomi Campbell, fashion designer Stella McCartney and singer Harry Styles. 

Meghan’s birthday followed four days later, but it is unknown whether or not Harry returned to the UK before joining his family or whether he met them in Ibiza.

Should Harry have flown directly to Ibiza from Palermo, via a private jet with five passengers, it would have put around a tonne of carbon into the atmosphere.

If he did return home from Palermo, a flight to the UK would have used up about 1.3 tonnes of CO2, while a flight from London to Ibiza would use about 0.8 tonnes.

A source told Majorca Daily Bulletin: ‘No images have emerged of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Archie, who stayed at a villa well away from the cameras.

‘They travelled with security personnel, and it is reported that local security forces were not needed.’

Ibiza holds a special place in Meghan’s memories, as she first travelled there with a group of friends in 2016, including Misha Nonoo, before she met Prince Harry. 

Questions over how the couple travelled to the Spanish island are likely to reignite criticism the prince faced over his attendance at Camp Google late last month.

Sources told the Mail On Sunday that Google paid for a private jet and a helicopter to ferry Prince Harry from London to Palmero for the summit, as environmental groups blasted the meeting for hypocrisy.

While Buckingham Palace has refused to confirm whether or not the prince attended the event, sources said a plane was chartered to bring the royal to Palmero airport.

A helicopter then whisked him onwards to the luxury resort of Verdura for the summit, all paid for by Google. 

 If Harry did travel via private jet, it would have put around three tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere – ten times more than going via commercial airliner.

In order to offset just the one-way plane ticket, Harry would need to plant around 190 trees, environmental group Trees for the Future said.

When pressed whether Harry had flown commercial or private, the CEO of Palermo airport Giovanni Scalia said: ‘Being royalty you can guess which.’

Critics questioned why the tech giant had used transport with massive carbon footprints to arrive at a climate change event.

Italian media reported that 114 private jets were scheduled to land in Palermo during the summit, although it was not clear if they were all chartered for guests – dubbed the ‘Greenerati’.

Google did not respond to requests for comment.

Harry has warned about the ‘terrifying’ effects of climate change on the world when he revealed this month that he and wife Meghan had decided to limit their family to two children. 

Harry is also believed to have stayed in a superyacht along with other ‘VIP guests’ during the summit.

According to experts, a 390ft super-yacht produces about 3.3 tons of damaging carbon dioxide each hour at sea by burning through around 200 gallons of fuel.

Vessels spotted during the Google Camp – an annual event launched by the tech giant’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 2012 –included the 300ft Eos, owned by Expedia billionaire Barry Diller, and Infinity, the 290ft yacht belonging to former Google boss Eric Schmidt.

Mr Diller, 77, denied Harry, 34, had joined celebrities including Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom on his yacht, but praised the Prince’s ‘eloquent’ speech about trying to save the planet by taking fewer selfies.

‘He was saying there are many holiday destinations that because of Instagram and other things are getting trampled by people taking selfies, and these places… are overwhelmed with tourism,’ Mr Diller told The Mail on Sunday.

‘The principal argument he was making was the need to actually expand people’s interest in places that are not so obviously ‘selfie-ised’.

‘It should be a goal to expand where people go for tourism, so these very few places with an enormous concentration of tourists would get some relief.’

Guests in Sicily included singer Katy Perry, who has appeared in Unicef films about combating climate change.

She arrived with fiance Orlando Bloom on board a £330million super yacht owned by Hollywood mogul David Geffen. She was reported to have been spotted in a Maserati SUV that does only 15 miles to the gallon.

Other guests were reported to include Leonardo DiCaprio, who runs his own environmental foundation, supermodel Naomi Campbell, fashion designer Stella McCartney and singer Harry Styles.

BBC presenter Andrew Neil used Twitter to pour scorn on the ‘plutocracy gathered in a billionaire’s hotspot’.

He tweeted: ‘Scores of celebrities and the rich have arrived in Sicily for a Google conference.

‘They came in 114 private jets and a flotilla of super yachts. The conference is on global warming.

‘What is [the] conference going to achieve, other than a glamorous knees up for the rich?

‘Also, and I may be out on a limb here, but I do believe there are scheduled flights and ferries to Sicily.’

Speaking at the time, Muna Suleiman, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: ‘People should really think hard about the message they’re sending out and the damage they’re causing when chartering a private plane.

‘It’s obviously important to have voices from across the globe as part of the conversation around stopping climate breakdown, but there are ways to travel more responsibly.’

The annual event was created by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin seven years ago to allow the rich and famous to meet in private.

Guest lists are confidential and attendees are banned from posting on social media.

They attend morning sessions about online privacy, politics, human rights and climate change. Afternoons are free for golf, spa treatments and relaxation.