Barriers went up, roads were blocked and thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth – but yesterday’s was a poignantly different kind of royal procession.
There was no flag waving, no cheering and no applause.
Instead, Her Majesty’s coffin was greeted by an impeccable and dignified silence as it made its journey from her beloved Balmoral to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, crossing 175 miles of some of Scotland’s most spectacular scenery.
Just minutes from Balmoral is the village of Ballater, where the Queen would regularly be spotted out and about, including on trips to pick up meat from the local butcher’s shop.
Yesterday hundreds gathered there solemnly, in a hush so deep you could almost have heard a pin drop.
Among them was retired teacher Anne Armstrong, 74. Commenting on the silent tribute, she said: “It was fitting for the kind of lady she was.”
Anne’s husband Jimmy Armstrong, also 74, summed up the feelings of those around him, including many dressed in black, some of the women in hats and veils as they respectfully watched the coffin pass wrapped in the Scottish Royal Standard.
He said: “There was a mutual affection between the village and the Queen. She’ll be sadly missed.”
Standing nearby was former sergeant major Callum Muir, who grew up living on the Balmoral estate when his father was the Queen’s head pony man.
He was joined by his daughter Ruby, 12 – who was christened in front of the Queen at her regular church Crathie Kirk – and his wife Louise, 43. Louise, who wiped away tears after the coffin passed, said: “It was beautiful.
“I’m not surprised by how many people have turned out. The Queen was a fixture here and our neighbour.”
Callum, 47, who served in the Royal Regiment of Scotland and was named in dispatches for heroism in Afghanistan, said: “I felt absolutely gutted when I found out she’d died.”
He added: “The Queen was a very kind person. It was like a close member of the family passing away.”
The cortege was led by scores of police outriders on motorbikes and a convoy of unmarked cars.
Mourners came out from the Highlands and Islands to crowd along pavements, at the side of A-roads and even on motorway bridges to get a glimpse of the cortege.
Farmers positioned their tractors to form a guard of honour in a touching tribute for the countryside-loving monarch.
The Queen’s final journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh, taking almost six-and-a-half hours, had begun by passing thousands of flowers left immediately outside the gates of her castle.
Fittingly, among those paying their respects there were 20 members of the Royal Marine Association Riders, a veterans’ organisation that the Queen personally invited to family services at Crathie Kirk.
Fiona Laine, 54, who served in the Women’s Royal Navy, said: “The Queen was our boss and we signed up to serve her, so we wanted to be here to see her. We’re here to wish her fair winds and calm seas.
“We’re very proud of her.”
Also saying a final farewell was James Gould, 59, who was granted a private audience with the Queen before ending his duties as an engineer on board the Royal Yacht Britannia when it was decommissioned in 1997.
He said: “I felt it was my duty to be here today.
“I had a lot of respect for the Queen. She was a really nice person and like a mother and grandmother to the whole country.”
