Tens of thousands of people filed past Her Majesty’s coffin as she lay in rest for 24 hours.
Image source, ReutersPeople have been told the lengthy queue to see the Queen’s coffin in Edinburgh is now closed.
The Scottish government says more than 26,000 mourners have already passed through St Giles’ Cathedral and people should no longer try to access it.
It said it was “doing everything” it could to ensure those already in the queue could pay their last respects before 15:00 BST on Tuesday.
The lying at rest period will then end before the coffin is taken to London.
It will be transported by cortège to Edinburgh Airport on Tuesday afternoon before being transferred to Westminster Hall for a lying-in-state period from 17:00 BST on Wednesday.
Thousands headed to Edinburgh’s Meadows area on Tuesday morning to pick up wristbands and join the main mile-long queue.
Mourners had begun filing into the cathedral on Monday evening to be part of the historic moment.
Thousands waited through the night, joining the line at the Meadows, which is south of the cathedral where the coffin is lying at rest.
The last wristbands were handed out around 13:00 BST on Tuesday but the Scottish government had already tweeted that queue times were “very long” and there was “no guarantee” of entry to St Giles’.
The queue has now closed. Please do not attempt to join the queue.
Over 26,000 people have already had a chance to pay their last respects.
We are doing everything we can to ensure that those currently in the queue can do so before 3pm, when the Lying at Rest will end.
— Scottish Government (@scotgov)
Charlie, 68, and his mother Janet, 89, were the last two people allowed to join the queue in Edinburgh’s Meadows.
Having travelled from Cathcart in Glasgow, Charlie – pushing his mother in a wheelchair – said he was “very honoured” to be in the city for this “very sombre occasion”.
It was important for his mother Janet to see the Queen’s coffin, he added.
She married in 1952 and the first television set she bought was to watch the late monarch’s coronation the following year.
Council leader Cammy Day earlier told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme that “tens of thousands of people” were expected to make their way through the city and through St Giles’.
He told the programme at one point on Monday evening the waiting time was in excess of 10 hours.
Image source, PA Media
Heavy traffic congestion and disruption is also expected in Edinburgh later on Tuesday with a series of road closures around the route the Queen’s coffin will take from St Giles’ Cathedral to the city’s airport.
Stein Connolly, Transport Scotland’s operations manager, said the influx had already had an impact on the road network and urged people to avoid non-essential travel if possible.
Anyone planning to line the route as the Queen’s coffin is relayed to Edinburgh Airport from 16:30 should plan ahead, allow extra time for their journey and bring water and other supplies, he added.
