One by one, they filed into the cathedral, and one by one they filed out again.
“It was very moving,” said Joss Lucas. “We felt very privileged that the queen was here, and we could actually be here to see her. It’s historic.”
Her friend Sharon Duncan agreed. “It was lovely, so quiet and peaceful.”
The pair were among the thousands who made their way past Queen Elizabeth’s coffin as it lay at rest in St Giles’ Cathedral on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, where more than 26,000 people paid their respects across Monday and Tuesday.
Some stood for six hours for the chance to do so; others, like Lucas and Duncan, were lucky, timing their arrival for the early morning when there was “no queue — we were just walking straight through”.
Inside the cathedral, the royal coffin sat on a catafalque draped in the Royal Standard for Scotland, with the crown of Scotland at its head.
“It was just there, sitting on the casket,” said Liz Provan. “The next time we see that, it’ll be in a case. That touched me more than anything.
“I just stood and looked at it and thought, that’s the last time we’re going to see it near her. I’m no royalist, but I like the queen, my pal.”
Though the Royal Mile was quiet in the early morning — at times it felt as if there were more yellow-jacketed police officers and security staff than members of the public — many lingered near the cathedral after leaving, and some affixed bunches of flowers to the security barriers.
There was a brief flurry of excitement as members of the Royal Company of Archers — which acts as the monarch’s bodyguard in Scotland — relieved their colleagues inside the cathedral, the eagle feathers in their caps and the longbows they carry drawing the attention of those watching.
“They’re great, aren’t they, with the bows and arrows,” said Duncan. “I’m so pleased she died in Scotland — to think, all this would have been in London otherwise. This helps the union. Scotland has looked good in the coverage.”
This point was made by others; the feeling was that the queen’s death in Scotland has given the country an opportunity to showcase itself at its best and, for the last few days at least, it has been the pro-union rather than the pro-independence voices which have spoken the loudest.
Originally from Sri Lanka but now living in Scotland, Ranjan De Silva recalled being taken to see the queen as a child and felt privileged to be able to view her coffin in Edinburgh.
“I have absolute respect for her — she gave a tremendous service to the country, to the world and to the Commonwealth, and her legacy is everything. I think people realise, actually, that the unity of these four countries [in the United Kingdom] is everything… why would we need independence?”
As the hours counted down towards the queen’s final departure from Scotland on Tuesday evening, others in Edinburgh were already looking to the future.
At the University of Edinburgh, it is “Welcome Week”, and first-year students — and the parents dropping them off — found themselves in the middle of the royal ceremonies.
While they — and local residents — grumbled about the road closures which have made getting to work or school a challenge — “it mucked up the buses, I had a 20-minute diversion to get to work” — there is also “surprise” at the “respect” shown for the queen.
“I thought Scottish people would be, ‘oh, the monarchy, that’s an English thing,’ but there’s been none of that,” said one student.
“It’s not just older people going to see her, it’s even really young children — I think it’s quite nice it transcended that age group,” said another.
Whether Scotland’s central place in the ceremonies marking the queen’s death will have a lasting impact remains to be seen — not least in regard to the question of Scottish independence — as will the monarchy’s relationship with the country under King Charles III.
“The number of people going to see the body shows how pro-royal and Tory Edinburgh is,” said Paul Darroch. “It would be different in Glasgow, which is a poorer city. It doesn’t give me much hope for [securing] independence.”
“I understand she was a mother and a grandmother and that is sad,” says Angela Gutierrez, “but that doesn’t take away from all the bad things [about the monarchy]. Nothing’s going to change. She was a massive figure for the country and around the world, but you can’t forget Britain’s past of empire and colonialism.”
