There were loud cheers, whoops and generous applause as the Queen’s cortege made its way down the cobblestoned Royal Mile in Edinburgh, watched by tens of thousands of people.
It capped a day in which the new King was proclaimed in Scotland, an event that brought a rare expression of dissent as a group of republicans loudly booed during some parts of the ceremony.
The cortege arrived in Edinburgh after its six-hour 180-mile journey from Balmoral.
It was over very swiftly. Isabelle Gall, a 62-year-old retired teacher from Dechmont, had only just made it to the corner of Canongate from Waverley station.
“I’d been watching it all day on the television and I thought, ‘I want to be there,’” she said. “Of course I missed the train and I had to get another, then I couldn’t buy a ticket, but I got here and I’ve ran up here, quicker than I’ve ever done and I’m glad I did.
“It was quick and, of course, like so many people I was experiencing it through my phone because I wanted to record it. But it was important. I’m glad I came. I never thought of myself as a royalist but I just have a feeling for the Queen, like a lot of people.”
People said they just wanted to pay their last respects. “The Queen meant a lot to me,” said 51-year-old tax adviser Julie Morgan-Jones, there with her 14-year-old daughter Ella. “She has always been around and it just felt important to come here today.”
Her friend Ella Muir, a 45-year-old personal assistant, was there with her daughter Olivia, 13. “It is history. We want to be able to speak about this with our daughters and they will be able to speak about it with their children.”
Olivia said: “I just feel it is really important, it will go down as a moment in history.”
As the cortege passed the Scottish parliament it was watched by politicians including the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Green co-leader, Lorna Slater, and the Lib Dem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton.
About 50 members of staff at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the monarch’s official residence in Scotland, gathered to greet the cortege as it arrived.
It came about four hours after the proclamation of King Charles III’s accession was made on the Royal Mile, which featured a 21-gun salute at Edinburgh Castle, marches by members of the band of the Royal Marines, the Royal Regiment of Scotland and the Royal Company of Archers, the 200-year-old regiment which is the sovereign’s bodyguard for Scotland. They carried bows and arrows and in each of their bonnets was a long, distinctive owl feather.
The reading of the proclamation from the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile was attended by dozens of dignitaries, including a Sturgeon.
The crowd were a mix of locals, tourists and a small group of flag-waving republicans. Where there were meant to be cheers, they booed. There were only about seven in number but they were extremely loud hecklers.
The proclamation announcing Charles’s accession was made by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, an ancient ceremonial position held by the mental health lawyer Joe Morrow. When he called for three cheers for King Charles III, his “hip, hip” was straightaway met with boos, soon drowned out by cheers from the rest of the crowd.
One of the protesters, with a particularly booming voice, was 26-year-old Connor Beaton, a member of the Radical Independence Campaign.
“We have an unelected king, we have an unelected prime minister,” he said. “It is never the right time to speak about abolishing the monarchy, it’s always offensive, it’s always disgraceful and actually at the moment we’ve got weeks and weeks and weeks of a propaganda blitz in favour of the monarchy … and we’re not allowed to say anything? I think that is ridiculous.”
As Beaton was talking to the Guardian other people in the crowd said it had been bad manners, it was disrespectful and it really was not the time.
“We live in a country with free speech and people should be allowed to express themselves,” Beaton said. “People have been booing kings for thousands of years so it is a long and proud democratic tradition. Why would I care about disrespecting the Kng? He is the same as any other person, he’s not better than me.”
One protester, not with Beaton’s group, was escorted from the crowd by police after holding up a sign saying, “Fuck imperialism, abolish the monarchy.”
Beaton would admit that he was in the minority on Sunday. The vast majority were there for the ceremony but they also genuinely wanted to pay their respects to the Queen. There was a warm applause after the proclamation.
Stephanie Haenicke, in her 50s, had travelled on the 7am bus from Dundee to grab a good spot near St Giles’ Cathedral. “I didn’t want to miss it. It’s history. I have great admiration for the Queen, she was a woman so dedicated … she gave her entire life to her job and you look at other heads of state and political leaders and you don’t see it. They’re all in it for themselves really.”
Edinburgh will remain the focus of royal events until the Queen’s coffin is flown to London from the city’s airport on Tuesday.
On Monday, the King will arrive in the city with Camilla. He will travel to Holyroodhouse, where he will inspect the guard of honour.
That will be followed by the ceremony of the keys, performed on the palace forecourt, at which the monarch is symbolically offered the keys to the city of Edinburgh by the Lord Provost.
The King will then join a solemn procession of the Queen’s coffin up the Royal Mile to St Giles’ Cathedral. There will be a service and members of the royal family will hold a vigil.
The Queen will lie at rest for 24 hours, which is not lying in state – that will take place in London. The public will be allowed access to pay their respects to the Queen.
The Scottish events are part of Operation Unicorn, the codename for the plans should the Queen die in Scotland.
