The Queen spent a lifetime in service to our nation and over the last few days Scotland can say it has done its final duty to the Queen. From the moment six of the Balmoral estate gamekeepers lifted her coffin into the hearse on Sunday to the emotional service at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, the country has shown an outpouring of love and respect.
It was all done with the solemnity and dignity that on our best days we take as a mark of the Scottish nation. The landscape, from Aberdeenshire to the Tay and down through Fife to our capital, shone for the world to see as she travelled through Scotland one final time.
Thousands of us waited patiently and lined the streets of our villages, towns and cities to pay our respects. The St Giles’ Cathedral service yesterday, and the procession of the Queen’s coffin with the Royal Family from the Palace o f Holyroodhouse, was both quietly dignified and a historic spectacle.
