"The Coffin" !

I was a bit disappointed that there was no comment as the cortège passed the tractors tribute but at least it’s been mentioned since.
metro.co.uk/video/tractors-line-queen-coffin-heads-edinburgh-2770723/

Oh, Monica, please don't sow the seeds of yet another conspiracy theory, even in jest!

The question no one has asked is: Is the Queen's body actually in the coffin, or was she quietly buried at Balmoral before 'The Coffin'' started its journey.

Could this be the start of a new conspiracy theory?

The large crowds of people lining the road where we were standing were clearly moved by the sadness of the situation. There was silence as she passed by. Even the children stopped talking.

I to noticed that, what a gaffe, so I put ITV on, they seem more professional.

paddyann
I think you could be right but I like to think there were some people who went out because it was the Queen.

I’ve done the entire journey in stages, over the years, Elegran. We were ‘paying guests’ at Balmoral one early summer. It’s not far from where we lived and was a regular weekend jaunt for us. It’s so beautiful, even in winter.

I’ve only seen a bit of the coverage but I want to find it on catch up as I know those roads very well indeed. I was looking for a friend’s peacocks and alpacas near where the tractor salute was held!

Millie a lot of people went simply because it was a historical event not through a love of a Monarch .My friends family in Dundee all went out but apparently the route didn't include town centre where they had gone ...they aren't royalists in any way but it was something...a unique event they thought their young teens should see

The queen mother was not born at Glamis castle but it was her childhood home and where she was courted by King George. We thought it was a pity it was missed out . One fact I learned to-day was that Queen Elizabeth ll was no blood relation of Elizabeth l but was related on both side of her family to Mary Queen of Scots .

The misinformation from some posters on this thread is not dissimilar to that of some of the TV commentators.
I turned the sound off. The pictures were good.

I am surprised to see how many people have been at Buckingham Palace today. There seems to be a desire to be part of history, to be able to say I was There.

SueDonim It wasn't really a suggestion, just a comment that getting her from Balmoral to London wasn't going to be a half-hour jaunt, however it was achieved.

However I do hold up my hand to the miles from Balmoral to Edinburgh - that was mentioned several times in the commentary to the journey. it was probably influenced by seeing just recently a reply to someone asking the same question on a travel site. It said, "How far is it from Balmoral Castle to Edinburgh? The distance between Balmoral Castle and Edinburgh is 76 miles. The road distance is 105.6 miles." which isn't right either.

I've never done the journey, incidentally - I was never invited.

I wasn't sure how much of the journey to Holyrood I needed to watch, in the end one road looks much like another. I did watch Charles coming back from Northolt because it was on roads that I know well and I do enjoy watching the outriders seamlessly controlling the traffic.

TV reporters can leave a lot to be desired sometimes. When Charles opened the St Ives Tate a reporter came along the crowd asking us all if we didn't think it was all a waste of money. Did she really think that some of us would have travelled the length of the county to see a waste of money?

I went to see the cortege pass by today in one of the Deeside villages. Everyone standing in the autumn sunshine was quiet and respectful. A few people started clapping but no one else joined in and it quickly stopped.

Whether people call it the coffin or the body, it made the queen’s death real for me but at the same time, I didn’t feel that the queen was inside that vehicle. She’s gone - to who knows where?

There’s been some laughable misinformation today. I read that the cortege would be passing Glamis Castle, the Scottish seat of the Bowes Lyon family. No it wouldn’t, unless they took a diversion onto the A94 road.

A commentator also claimed they’d be passing over the Devil’s Elbow. That would have been exciting, as it’s on the challenging A93 mountain pass road to the Glenshee ski resorts, in the opposite direction from Aberdeen.

Nor would Elegran’s suggestion work. The last train left Ballater station in 1966, nearly sixty years ago and the queen couldn’t have be flown from Aberdeen because the runway isn’t large enough to accommodate the size of plane permitted to carry bodies. I only know this because a friend recently died overseas and his body had to go to a larger airport. Also, Balmoral to Edinburgh is over 170 miles, not 75 miles.

I think the BBC’s commentary on the cortège journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh was terrible. I appreciate that it must be difficult to fill so much time but surely they should be better informed as to what’s going on ?

I cannot get out of my head the fact that the Queen is being moved about the country for eleven days of mourning.
I can’t imagine how it got into your head because it is, as indeed much of your post, completely unsubstantiated.

In 1290 it took twelve days to return Edward I's Queen Eleanor, who had died in Harby, Nottinghamshire, around 7 miles from Lincoln, to Westminster Abbey for burial. The King was heartbroken, and gave orders that a beautiful memorial cross be erected at the site of each overnight stop of the funeral procession. The final Eleanor Cross, and the most elaborate and expensive of them all, was sited at Charing, the place we now know as Charing Cross. there were twelve crosses, but only three remain.

www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-eleanor-crosses-longshanks-love-set-in-stone/

She wasn't exactly "moved about the country for eleven days of mourning". That makes it sound as though she will be in eleven different places in the eleven days.

She will be in two. She died in her beloved "holiday home" at Balmoral.

If she had been buried where she died there would no doubt have been a great deal of fuss that she wasn't laid to rest in London, but she can't be magically transported to London in the twinkling of an eye. . To get her back to London would have meant a minimum journey to the nearest airport (Aberdeen, 40.3 miles away) or railway station (Ballater 7.2 miles) and then a flight or a train journey. All at a speed and dignity that befits the last journey of a Queen and with transfers from car to train or plane.

Balmoral to Edinburgh is 75.7 miles (less than twice the distance to Aberdeen) with no transfers from one method of transport to another.

It also has the bonus that she will spend a night in Holyrood Palace - her other official residence when she is in Edinburgh - and that her Scottish subjects have a chance to pay their respects on Monday as she lies in state for 24 hours (as they did all along the route of her journey from Balmoral to the Scottish capital).

She will then be driven to Edinburgh airport and a plane to London - where her English and Welsh subjects will be able to pay their respects for four days.

All these arrangements were carefully thought out long ago.

Katek, you're spot on.

It was local Councils asked people not to throw flowers.

We spotted the Purves numberplate and the wording on the window as well - thought it was actually etched into the glass. Purves were the undertakers for my parents’ funerals, exceedingly professional firm and nothing left to chance.

buffyfly9 - if you had watched any of the coverage you wouldn’t have seen any fainting or weeping and wailing. The occasional wiping of a tear from the eye or a small ripple of low key clapping. Barely a flower was thrown either - to paraphrase one of the commentators. the Scot is a different animal, we emote less than other nations.

boheminan

Must admit, I was shocked that the flag over the coffin was clearly displaying the flag makers name on it, like advertising

Ooops. Someone is in for a telling off.

the BBC and others should simply stick with the words 'the late Queen' in my opinion, it is more respectful than any other words used like coffin.
the BBC often seems to lose it's way where commentators are concerned lately.
so many people in Scotland turned out to pay their respects to the late Queen, it was wonderful to see.

He was probably about to say 'precious cargo' then had a change of mind at the word cargo.

I read that the Queen was involved with the planning of her funeral several years ago, so maybe she was happy to be moved about the country. In my humble opinion I am sick to death of the coverage, it’s everywhere papers, pages and pages, the Tv, hours of it but just watching countryfile and that is ok

I was switching between BBC & Sky so can't remember who was to blame but at one point some chap who was struggling to probably avoid saying body, coffin, she, woman or something, said, 'the contents of the vehicle' !!

To be fair, they've had to prattle on for hours on end the past few days!