The Princess of Wales took to Instagram to share an adorable family photo for her husband Prince William’s 42nd birthday, but royal fans may have noticed certain similarities between this photograph and video footage of their grandparents, 67 years earlier.

In the photo, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and their dad are all smiles as they leap from a sand dune onto the beach.

Footage from the royal archives shown on the BBC programme Elizabeth at 90: A Family Tribute, Princess Anne, a young King Charles, and the late Prince Phillip can be seen playing in the same sand dunes on Holkham beach in Norfolk.

“We always had fun playing hide-and-seek in those dunes,” King Charles says in the video.

“Holkham was a bit off the beaten track. It does look almost completely empty which you wouldn’t find now. But it was a public beach even then. It’s a big beach,” adds the Princess Royal.

The beach, named one of the best white sand beaches in the UK, has lots of happy memories for the royals, as it is located close to the Sandringham Estate. The beach was a favourite walking spot for both the late Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother to walk their corgis along.

© Getty. Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, takes a beach stroll in 1987

Reportedly, the late Queen was given a secret entrance to approach the beach, according to royal commentator Richard Eden, who wrote in the Daily Mail: “Thomas Coke, 8th Earl of Leicester, who owns Holkham Estate in Norfolk, has given Her Majesty a ‘more discreet way to enter the reserve’ when she wants to walk the dogs.”

In 2021, to commemorate their 10th wedding anniversary, the Prince and Princess of Wales shared a sweet video of their young family at the same beach. It’s a half hour drive from Anmer Hall, their countryside residence, and clearly a favourite of the royal children, as Prince Louis is also thought to be pictured there in the photos released for his fourth birthday, also taken by his mum.