Sunday 11 September 2022 11:04 PM Robert Hardman watches as the Queen's coffin is transported from Balmoral to ... trends now
She left to morning birdsong, the muted sobs of her devoted Balmoral staff and Glen Gelder, a favourite lament played by a lone piper – her own piper, of course.
More than six hours and 175 miles later, following a final journey across the land she loved perhaps more than any other, Elizabeth, Queen of Scots arrived in the most handsome of her capitals last night to find its most famous thoroughfare filled to capacity. In between, she progressed at a stately pace – saluted by tearful subjects, livestock and even tractors – as she meandered her way through the rugged glens, villages and cities of eastern Scotland.
She had known them all as well as anyone alive. For there cannot have been very much of this route which she had not either owned, opened or visited at some point in her record-breaking reign. (Indeed, as her motorcade reached the Queensferry Crossing over the Firth of Forth, which she opened in 2017, it was astonishing to think that she had also opened the adjacent Forth Road Bridge in 1964).
Robert Hardman: 'She left to morning birdsong, the muted sobs of her devoted Balmoral staff and Glen Gelder, a favourite lament played by a lone piper – her own piper, of course'
Princess Anne curtseys at the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II as it arrives at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh where it will lie in rest for a day
People gather along the streets of Edinburgh to pay tribute as the cortege carrying the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II passes the Royal Mile
Finally, the late Queen arrived yesterday evening to spend one last night at her official Edinburgh residence, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, ahead of today’s grand formalities by the Scottish state.
Yesterday was a day for informal tributes from the Scottish people.
It is safe to say that there was nowhere Elizabeth II felt happier than at Balmoral, her free-range sanctuary since childhood. At ten o’clock yesterday morning, she left it for the last time, carried out of the castle on the shoulders of six gamekeepers.
Her father and grandfather had also begun their final journeys carried by their keepers (from Sandringham, in their cases). This was not just about tradition, however.
The Queen had known all the Balmoral keepers, even before she stalked her first deer as a teenage girl. She knew the names of their children and adored their stories. During the Nineties, she and Prince Philip were on a hillside with a much-loved keeper when the poor man had a heart attack and died. It was the Queen who stayed with him until help arrived. Such were her bonds with this solid, trusted breed of men.
Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence travel behind the hearse yesterday afternoon
Robert Hardman: 'It was Princess Anne who spoke to the Queen almost daily in her later years, who had been working in Scotland and staying with her mother in her final days. She was the one who had sounded the family alarm last Thursday morning'
Her coffin of Scottish oak was placed in a hearse, beneath the Royal Standard of Scotland and flowers from the Balmoral estate, including sweet peas from the walled garden of which she was so proud and white heather from the hills.
The public’s first glimpse of their late and much-mourned monarch came as she emerged through the gates of Balmoral.
Following behind the hearse, in the Queen’s State Bentley, was the Princess Royal accompanied by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence. Amid the shock of the succession, we have naturally been preoccupied with our new King and Queen. It was, therefore, right and proper to see the late monarch’s only daughter leading the cortege yesterday.
Robert Hardman: 'On the Royal Mile, there was simply no room left. Some had been waiting for hours. Jennifer McLean, 61, from Peterhead, had risen at the crack of dawn and driven for more than four hours, bringing three generations of the family'
Robert Hardman: 'Many had come in large family groups. Interestingly, none of those I met were tourists. They were all true Scots saluting one of their own'
It was Princess Anne who spoke to the Queen almost daily in her later years, who had been working in Scotland and staying with her mother in her final days. She was the one who had sounded the family alarm last Thursday morning. Her links with and love of Scotland are a source of great pride here (just ask any Scottish rugby fan).
Following behind was the Reverend Kenneth Mackenzie, minister of Crathie Kirk, where the Queen had surely worshipped longer than anyone, and the Earl of Dalhousie, Lord Steward of the Royal Household.
The convoy was led by a single outrider (the Queen was never one for monster motorcades) and was soon on the A93.
They could hardly have picked a better day, Deeside looking every bit as majestic as its departing resident. Aerial television cameras beamed it all around the world. How thrilled the Queen would have been to think that her last journey might also have served as a turbo-booster for a recovering Scottish tourist industry.
After a few miles of lush farmland, with intermittent clusters of cap-doffing farmers and bowing campers, the Queen encountered the first notable gathering of mourners in dear old Ballater.
This is the village which has been supplying the castle since Queen Victoria’s time. It must have more royal warrants per square foot than anywhere in the kingdom. Even the newsagent has one. No wonder. Years back, when the Queen Mother’s telly
