Scottish mourners paid tribute to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II yesterday by lining the route of her coffin procession in their thousands as she left Balmoral for the last time.
The United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, died at Balmoral on Thursday, aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.
She ruled from February 6, 1952, until her death on September 8, 2022. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest by any British monarch and the second-longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country.
Silent, sombre and respectful well-wishers gathered beside country roads, bridges and in village and city centres to say goodbye to the woman who was never more at home then when in Scotland.
The queen’s children and their spouses – Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie – watched as soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland carried the coffin into the palace.
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In a touching gesture, deference to the monarch was still observed, with the royal women curtseying and the men bowing their heads.
As the procession neared its end, flowers were thrown in front of the hearse – from William Purvis, a family run funeral directors based in Scotland – and spontaneous applause broke out from sections of the crowds in the Royal Mile.
At one point, as the cortege travelled through Dundee, a lone long-stemmed flower could be seen on the hearse windscreen and in a rural part of the route farmers paid homage to the queen with tractors lined up in a field.
The queen did not travel alone during her 180-mile journey. Anne and her husband were in a limousine as part of a procession directly behind her.
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon paid tribute to the queen when her final journey through the Scottish Highlands began just after 10 am (0900 GMT).
Sturgeon said in a tweet: “A sad and poignant moment as Her Majesty, The Queen leaves her beloved Balmoral for the final time.
“Today, as she makes her journey to Edinburgh, Scotland will pay tribute to an extraordinary woman.”
The queen’s oak coffin, draped with the royal standard of Scotland with a wreath of Balmoral flowers on top, began its journey from the queen’s summer sanctuary in the Highlands and the first settlement it reached was Ballater.