THE Queen’s last great journey began at Balmoral yesterday as she left her beloved estate for the final time.
Among those paying their respects as her hearse slowly passed was Dr Andre Andrasovska, who said: “What we are seeing today is the departure of the soul of the nation. It is a very significant event.”
At her beloved Balmoral Castle, six of the late monarch’s faithful ghillies and gamekeepers had hoisted her oak casket on to broad shoulders.
It was then carefully placed into a black-liveried Mercedes hearse.
A lone bagpiper hauntingly played as the ghillies — who had accompanied the Queen on Balmoral’s grouse moors and salmon beats — bid her farewell.
The Princess Royal, 72, ensured that the Queen was not alone on her final journey.
Read More On The Queen's Death
Accompanied by her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne followed in a black Bentley limousine.
Anne forlornly stared towards the hearse ahead.
It comes as…
Resolute as always in her duties, she is taking a central role in the mourning period.
A small crowd bowed their heads in reverence when the hearse emerged from the wrought-iron gates of the 50,000-acre Balmoral estate at 10.08am.
With a black helicopter following overhead, the cortège moved slowly along the A93, towards the close knit village of Ballater.
There the Royal Family are considered neighbours by townsfolk and are on first name terms with local shop and business owners.
As the sombre procession neared the village’s stark grey buildings, waiting crowds called for hush from foreign broadcasters.
A party of Highland dignitaries in kilts of orange and green tartan bowed their heads.
James Anderson, chairman of Ballater and Crathie Community Council, said: “It is very sombre here. It’s as if we have lost a neighbour. I think Balmoral is a sanctuary for the family, they are left to go about their business when they are here.”
The village is built on granite and used to bitter Highland storms.
Locals don’t readily display emotion in public.
But guest house manager Victoria Pacheco revealed afterwards: “People were crying, it was amazing to see. She meant such a lot to people in this area.”
Wedged between TV crews from New Zealand and Japan, I paid silent respects as the Queen’s hearse passed by at 10.25am.
Her casket was draped with the Royal Standard of Scotland.
It was adorned with a wreath made up of her favourite flowers cut from the Balmoral estate – including sweet peas, dahlias, phlox, white heather and pine fir.
As the cortège slowly moved past the red sandstone Glenmuick Church, Union Flag standards were lowered beside the white stone memorial to those who had fallen in two world wars.
A moving moment resonating with significance as the late Commander-in-Chief of Britain’s Armed Forces inched past.
Adults clasped hands behind their backs and with lips pursed, they paid silent respects.
Youngsters clutching Union Flags looked on in wonder as the cortège steadily passed Glenmuick Church where the monarch had once worshipped.
The Reverend David Barr said: “It’s like your mum has passed away, it’s that sort of grief.
“In this village everyone knows each other. Everyone cares about each other.”
In winter coats and bobble hats, Dr Andrasovska — originally from Slovakia — and his wife Lorna watched with daughter Zofia, ten, and four-year-old son Jacob.
In traditional Highland dress and clutching a grouse-head staff, Richard Baird revealed: “We think the right place for the Queen to depart this world was in Scotland.”
The commander of Clan Baird added: “The Royal Family saw Balmoral very much as a home and we all enjoyed having them in the area. They obviously felt very relaxed up here.”
Colin and Patricia Dunmore had travelled 330 miles from Liverpool to witness the procession.
Colin, 58, revealed: “It took us seven hours. We tried to find a hotel near here but the nearest one we could get was 40 miles away.
“We set the alarm for eight o’clock but I woke up at 5am anyway and thought we best just get here early.”
Behind the Queen and her cortège of solemn black limousines was a spare hearse, an ambulance, and two vehicles full of masked, heavy duty security personnel.
The vehicles then travelled through the pine forests and heather-clad crags of the Cairngorms.
A light breeze blew wisps of cloud across sun-dappled peaks.
It was a glorious Highland day of the sort the Queen had cherished for nine decades.
The cortege later passed through Aberdeen and Dundee on the 175-mile journey to Edinburgh’s Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Thousands lined roadside verges and pavements to say goodbye.
At Banchory, the biggest town in Royal Deeside — 18 miles west of Aberdeen — mourners threw flowers at the hearse as it passed through the high street.
Others clapped as the tail end of the cortège went past.
In another touching moment, farmers in rural Aberdeenshire provided a guard of honour of agricultural machinery.
Some 40 tractors and a combine harvester lined up in fields as the hearse went by.
Other people had crammed on to motorway bridges over the M90 for a vantage point as the hearse neared Edinburgh.
Scotland’s capital was teeming with mourners as a guard of honour formed by the Royal Regiment of Scotland greeted the late monarch with a royal salute.
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The Queen had left her beloved Highlands behind forever.
Now the pomp and pageantry more associated with royal life will play out in preparation for Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday when the nation says farewell to a giant of our age.
