Mourners will be able to view the Queen’s coffin from 5pm on Monday at St Giles Cathedral, City of Edinburgh Council have confirmed.
The late monarch will lie in state at the cathedral on Edinburgh’s High Street for 24 hours and members of the royal family, including the King, will stand beside the coffin from 7.20pm in a tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes.
On Sunday, 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.
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.”
On Sunday, the coffin will leave Balmoral Castle for its six hour procession, slowing to allow people to witness and pay respects as it passes through towns and villages and via Aberdeen to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
The coffin will be accompanied by the Earl of Dalhousie and the Minister of Crathie Church and driven in a hearse provided by William Purves, a company from Edinburgh which was founded in 1888 in the reign of Queen Victoria.
The coffin will remain in the Throne Room at Holyroodhouse overnight 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 lying in state where the public will be able to pay their respects for 24 hours.
The procession along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile will feature the new 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 attend the service in St Giles’s.
The Princess Royal will accompany the Queen’s body back to London on Tuesday, September 13.
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