Within the Ballroom of Balmoral Castle, the Queen’s coffin this morning lies in ‘a scene of quiet dignity’.

Draped with the Royal Standard for Scotland and with a wreath of flowers on top, it has remained at rest to allow loyal Balmoral estate workers, who devoted years of service to the monarch, to pay their last respects.

Later today, the coffin will begin its journey down to Edinburgh.

It will be lifted onto a hearse at 10am by six of the estate’s gamekeepers, who have been tasked with the symbolic gesture, ready for a six-hour journey to Edinburgh.

There, in the city capital where the late monarch enjoyed many happy memories, people will again be able to say final goodbyes.

The arrangements at Balmoral are being overseen by Richard Gledson, factor of the Balmoral Estate, with the Reverend Kenneth MacKenzie, minister of Crathie Church, in attendance.

Last night, a senior palace official said: ‘On Thursday September 8, The Queen passed away peacefully at Balmoral Castle.

‘She currently lies in an oak coffin covered with the Royal Standard for Scotland and with a wreath of flowers laid on top, in the Ballroom of Balmoral Castle.

‘This enables the Balmoral Estate Staff, many of whom have spent a good deal of their lives in Royal Service there, to pay their last respects.

‘It is a scene of quiet dignity.’

The coffin will leave Balmoral Castle for its six hour procession, slowing to allow people to witness the momentous occasion as it passes through towns and villages and via Aberdeen to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

Queen Elizabeth II dead: What happens next?

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the throne, her death announced by Buckingham Palace on September 8, 2022.

She died at the age of 96 at her home in Balmoral, with her son, the now King Charles, and daughter Princess Anne by her side.

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Aberdeenshire, and the wider rolling hills surrounding the Balmoral Estate, held special memories by the Queen.

She would have made the journey on the winding roads from Aberdeen to her countryside retreat umpteen times.

But today marks her ‘final journey’ from Balmoral as her coffin travels south.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the ‘poignant’ journey will ‘mark our country’s shared loss’.

The Queen’s coffin will be accompanied by the Earl of Dalhousie and the Minister of Crathie Church on the drive.

It will be driven in a hearse provided by William Purves, an Edinburgh-based company which was founded in 1888 in the reign of Queen Victoria.

The coffin will remain in the Throne Room at Holyroodhouse overnight, where the staff of Holyroodhouse will be able to pay their final respects, before a procession on Monday along the Royal Mile to St Giles’ Cathedral for a service, a Vigil of the Princes featuring the King and other royals, and a mini lying in state where the public will be able to pay their respects for 24 hours.

The procession along Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile will feature the King and the late Queen’s other children the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex following behind on foot, along with Anne’s husband Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.

The Queen Consort and the Countess of Wessex will follow by car and also attend the service in St Giles’s.

After its situ in Scotland, the Queen’s coffin then be flown down to London. Princess Anne will be on the flight, Buckingham Palace added.

The late monarch will lie in state for ‘four clear days’ in Westminster Hall from September 14.

She will later be laid to rest at Westminster Abbey on Monday, September 19 at 11am.

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