Scores of Edinburgh locals and tourists gathered outside the Queen's residence in the capital on Friday to pay tribute to the late monarch.
Hundreds of flowers were laid outside the gates of the Palace of Holyrood House, some with personal messages to the Queen thanking her for decades of service and devotion to a nation.
The news broke on Thursday afternoon, September 8, that Her Majesty was under the supervision of doctors at her Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire. The Palace noted that she was "comfortable," although speculation quickly built over her condition, as all four of her children and other members of the Royal Family made the trip to Scotland to be with her.
READ MORE - When Queen's body will arrive in Edinburgh from Balmoral as procession planned
On Thursday evening, Buckingham Palace released a statement confirming the 96-year-old had sadly passed away peacefully and the world has since united to mourn her death and to pay their respects to the woman who has been at the forefront of a nation since the later 1950s.
We spoke to various locals and tourists that decided to visit the gardens outside Holyrood Palace on Friday morning to lead their own personal tribute with some laying flowers and others still raw from the devastating news.
One local, Gary Miller, spoke to Edinburgh Live about why he decided to visit the grounds and what the Queen meant to him and his family. He said: "I felt like coming down to purely pay my respects - it was something that had to be done. It's something that resonates deep in me about what the Queen has done over the years and how she kept our country together.
"Things escalated quite quickly. I was in the house when the news broke. Obviously everyone was fearing the worst and could maybe sense it was about to happen. I think the Queen meant a great deal to me and my family due to the example she set and how hard she worked, had good morals and treated others how she'd like to be treated.
"I hope people can see past a few things and think clearly, there's a lot going on in the world right now and people should think why the union was formed. I'll definitely be raising a glass tonight."
Julie Burns decided to lay some red roses outside the gates and said that the flowers were a symbol of the Queen and how we saw her from a bud and witnessed her bloom.
She said: "It's a sad, sad day. We all knew it was coming but the shock was profound. I just wanted to go out into the garden this morning and pick a few roses. It sounds quite fanciful but when I picked the roses, they are quite old and battered now as they're late summer roses, but I thought the Queen was our late summer rose.
"We have known her from a bud and seen her bloom. She's very special to me and so, so many people, I'm sorry for her family."
Dutch student, Sterre, came to Edinburgh to study and only arrived on Friday. She said her arrival in the capital was a happy moment - but it was overshadowed by the loss of the Queen, who meant a great deal in her country.
Visiting the palace with her mum, Jits, Sterre commented: "It was quite odd walking around and having a look at the university while the news broke. My sister messaged me and said we're probably going to have a period of mourning. We were checking our phones constantly and the moment we checked into our hotel and turned on the news, she sadly passed away.
"It happened very fast. Back home she is a very important figure and we have family in Canada so our own Royal Family is very close to the British one. Personally, my grandmother is only a few months younger than the Queen was.
Summing up the Queen and her contributions to the nation and further afield, Jits and Sterre described her as "warm, wise and a very intelligent woman."
Steven and Nicola Carmichael, who returned to the scene of their wedding outside the palace 16 years to the day, gathered once more to pay their respects and take a moment to reflect on a life well-lived.
The couple, from Edinburgh, said: "We just wanted to pay our respects on a sad occasion. The Queen carried out a great number of years of service and we have the utmost respect for her. She was 96 so she's had a good life, when the family got called you kind of expected what was going to happen.
"It is pretty shocking that we only saw her two days ago swearing in the new Prime Minister, that just her determination and her commitment to carry out her duties just two days before the end of her life."
Keep up to date with all the latest news following the Queen's death on our live blog.
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