Queen Elizabeth II‘s coffin has arrived in Edinburgh to lie in rest at the Palace of Holyroodhouse overnight, after tens of thousands of mourners stood for hours in the streets of the Scottish capital to pay their respects to the late monarch as she left her beloved Balmoral Castle for the last time.
The royal procession led by the hearse carrying the Queen’s oak coffin – draped in the Royal Standard for Scotland with a wreath of Balmoral flowers on top – crossed the River Forth via the Queensferry Crossing at around 4pm, nearly six hours after starting its 180-mile journey to Edinburgh.
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The crowd gathered down the Royal Mile fell silent in respect as the convoy – which included a limousine carrying the late Queen’s daughter Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence – passed, before a round of applause and cheers broke out.
As the Queen’s coffin passed the Scottish Parliament, Scotland’s political leaders – First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater and Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton – stood on the pavement outside Holyrood to pay their respects.
The hearse bearing the Queen’s coffin then arrived at the Palace just before 4.30pm, where it was received by Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex. The Queen’s cortege then received a guard of honour by the King’s Bodyguard for Scotland before the coffin was carried out of the hearse by pallbearers and taken inside the palace, where it will stay overnight before being moved to St Giles’ Cathedral tomorrow afternoon – where earlier a large crowd had gathered to witness the midday proclamation of King Charles III as head of state.
Tomorrow, King Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort will visit Edinburgh and join his other siblings walking behind his late mother’s coffin when it is moved from the Palace to St Giles’ Cathedral. At 7.20pm, the monarch will hold a vigil at the late Queen’s coffin with other members of the Royal Family.
Earlier today, a single motorbike police outrider led the way as the hearse travelled at a stately pace through the Aberdeenshire countryside. 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 monarch with tractors lined up in a field.
Hundreds lined the main street of Ballater, the picturesque Victorian village closest to the Balmoral estate, where locals considered her a neighbour, as the Queen’s coffin was driven slowly through. Her Majesty and her family were often seen in the village in Royal Deeside, which she had visited since childhood and where the Royal Family have space to be themselves.
The hearse passed Glenmuick Church, where the Rev David Barr rang the church bells 70 times after the Queen’s death was announced.
Flowers were thrown into the hearse’s path by well-wishers on both sides of the road in Ballater, which was sombre and silent. The hearse slowed to a fast walking pace and mourners could clearly see the royal standard-draped coffin and the wreath featuring flowers from the Balmoral estate, including sweet peas – one of the Queen’s favourite flowers – dahlias, phlox, white heather and pine fir.
Earlier, the Queen’s oak coffin was carried to the hearse by six Balmoral estate gamekeepers tasked with the symbolic gesture. It had been at rest in the Balmoral ballroom so the monarch’s estate workers could say their goodbyes.
