‘Press free zone’: How a small Canadian community is welcoming Meghan and Harry and rallying to protect their privacy... even if the world’s media is not

They have certainly found themselves a palace.

No ballrooms or thrones perhaps, but a stunning $20m (£15.3m) property on a secluded headland with views that sweep west over the Saanich Inlet. Close by, on a bench overlooking the water, are inscribed the words: “Enjoy the sunset”.

Whether this property on Canada’s Vancouver Island will be a long term haven for Meghan Markle and Henry Windsor remains to be seen.

Having given up some of their royal titles and duties, and decided to forgo taxpayer money, the royal couple have in recent weeks been holed up here – going for walks with their dogs, posing for selfies with their eight-month-old son Archie, and dropping in at farmers’ markets for sandwiches and coffee.

Yet, the royal couple have already complained about press intrusion; this week their lawyers accused the media of using long range lenses and hiding in bushes to photograph the 38-year-old Ms Markle, as she walked in a park close to the property. The lawyers accused the media of “harassment” and threatened legal action.

“There are serious safety concerns about how the paparazzi are driving and the risk to life they pose,” said the letter, in what appeared to a reference to the death of 35-year-old Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who died in a 1997 Paris car crash while being being pursued by press photographers, and with her driver having drunk three times the legal limit.

If they do stay, it will likely be in large part to residents here who appeared to have offered not just a warm welcome, but also sought to defend their privacy.

“I’ve seen them a few times and said hello once. I said hello to them both and Harry said hello back,” said one 76-year-old man, was walking his dog in Horth Hill Regional Park. “They were quiet.”

He added: “I like what they’re trying to do – to start over. But I don’t think it will be an easy life.

“After Diana’s death Harry was very depressed and he says that the click of a camera shutter sets off bad memories.”

In many ways, North Saanich, quiet, largely rural and which has a population of around 11,000, makes an unlikely destination for the couple, who said they had “no other option” but to stand down from royal duties if they wanted a more peaceful life.

It is certainly a long way, approximately 4,400 miles and with markedly wetter weather, from Mustique, the private Caribbean island where another disillusioned royal, Prince Margaret, sought refuge in the 1970s with Roddy Llewellyn.

Margaret, who declared it to be “the only place I can relax”, also thundered about press intrusion after being photographed there with Llewellyn by the News of the World, which published the images and exposed her affair. (The incident featured in the third season of The Crown, the dramatic recreation of royal life, in which Margaret is played by Helena Bonham Carter.)

Yet, in other ways North Saanich is almost perfect.

“It’s a quiet place – not crowded,” said Gary Witton, who was eating lunch in the town of Sidney. “And where they are living is very beautiful. There are lots of little farmers’ markets and artisanal shops.”

Then there is the issue of privacy.

“It’s quiet, away from the city,” said a woman who lives in a property near to that occupied by the couple. “There’s clean air. It’s very small. And we value each other’s privacy.”

As locals swap and compare notes about their encounters with the international media – one of the Sussexes’ neighbours pulled out his cellphone to display images he had taken of a Japanese television crew earlier in the week – there may be caveats to the sometimes po-faced requests to “leave them alone”.

A number of residents have been quoted as being “excited” by the royal arrivals and at the Deep Cove Market, where Harry and Meghan stopped to try the homemade sandwiches and where a piece of white A4 paper taped tp the door read ‘Press Free Zone”, a metal rack offered a range of newspapers, including the international edition of the Daily Express whose front page on Wednesday featured a large photograph of the couple and a headline that read: “It’s Freedom… but at a price”.

The local newspaper, the Times Colonist, had limited news of Harry’s return to Vancouver Island this week after securing agreement “to quit” from the Queen, to a single column on page five. That may have been because it had a cracking front-page story about police being called to a road traffic accident and discovering a dead body, believed to be the victim of a paid hit job.

“This isn’t just a simple collision,” police spokesperson Nancy Saggar told the newspaper.

Perhaps the simplest reason Harry and Meghan have come to Vancouver Island, a short flight or ferry ride from the buzzing, diverse city of Vancouver, is that everything must seem so familiar.

Unlike in the US, also just a short drive or flight away, Canadian bakeries are packed with meat pies and Cornish pasties, tea is as popular as coffee, and Queen Elizabeth’s image features on bank notes and coins.

Though Canada ended its dominion from Britain as far back as 1867, and secured complete independence with passage of the 1982 Canada Act, Harry’s grandmother remains the head of state, and Canada is an enthusiastic member of the Commonwealth.

As such, Canada’s official welcome to the couple appears to have been as heartfelt as that offered by the residents of Vancouver Island.

John Horgan, premier of British Columbia, told reporters he had spoken to prime minister Justin Trudeau, about the couple’s arrival.

Mr Trudeau has declined to say whether Canada will pay for any security costs incurred by their presence, but Mr Horgan suggested only good would come of them being here.

“We’re both kind of giddy about it. Canada is a cool place to be. We are all pretty happy about that as Canadians,” he said.

“And the fact that they felt comfortable here speaks to us as a society and that gives us a reason to pat ourselves on our back.”

He added: “That we are good and kind people who don’t want to intrude in the lives of famous people. We’re excited when we see them but leave them be.”

At the Fickle Fig coffee shop and market in North Saanich, another place where Harry and Meghan are said to have enjoyed a lunch or coffee in recent weeks, an Englishman and his North American wife were getting ready to leave with their toddler.

The man, who may have been in his 30s and who asked not to give his name, said he had moved to the island a couple of years ago to be with his wife.

“It’s a quiet place. It’s hard to get to,” he said, asked why he thought the royal couple had selected it. “And Vancouver Island is a wonderful place to live.”