‘The obvious thing to do’: Mourners queue through night to see Queen’s coffin in Edinburgh

“This is a chance to stand and reflect on all the years that we’ve known her,” said one mourer in line to pay his respects

Edinburgh was humming at 5am on Tuesday morning as lines of people throughout the city made their way towards The Meadows park.

The ten-hour overnight queues from Monday, which had snaked for miles round the open grassland, were mostly gone and mourners hurried along the cobbled streets to get the grey wristbands that would grant them access to St Giles’ Cathedral.

Raymond Sutherland, who was queueing with his five-year-old daughter, Alba Rose, on his shoulders, said they had woken up at 4am to see the Queen lying in rest.

“She’s got to go to school later,” he said, gesturing up to his daughter, who was dressed in a pink puffer coat.

“My dad served in the army and so I wanted to come and pay my respects. It’ll be a good send-off for her,” he added.

“I’m totally exhausted. I’ve just jumped out of my bed,” said Elizabeth, an Edinburgh resident in her 70s. “I remember watching the Queen’s coronation on TV when I was eight and this is a chance to stand and reflect on all the years that we’ve known her.”

Thousands were already queueing to get into St Giles’ Cathedral at 6am on Tuesday. (The Independent)

As the queue neared its destination, stewards - who had been on duty since 7:30pm the night before - told people they could not bring food into the church and funnelled the crowd through security arches.

A police officer warned people that there could be a change of guard staff while they were viewing the Queen’s coffin. The switch-over involves 20 minutes of public prayer, but officers, keen to keep the queue moving quickly, told mourners that they should not stop while the priest was speaking.

Once through the doors, visitors were split into two streams and the only sound in the cathedral was of feet slowly shuffling past.

Mourners walked past the Queen’s oak coffin, draped in the Royal Standard flag with the Crown of Scotland placed at the top, and bowed their heads in a moment of quiet reflection.

Bruce Karczewski had driven for 90 minutes to get to Edinburgh at 5am in the morning. (The Independent)

One visitor started to cry, her lip quivering as she stood in front of the Queen’s casket and her daughter stepped in to comfort her.

Four members of the Royal Company of Archers, armed with longbows and quivers of arrows, stood like statues at the four corners of the coffin.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to see the Queen at St Giles but they will only get less than a minute to pay their respects.

“It’s very short for someone who’s given so much time. She’s given so much and we’re giving so little,” 70-year-old Army veteran, Bruce Karczewski, said.

With his long-service medal and Northern Ireland service medal pinned to his chest, Mr Karczewski stood for a moment outside the cathedral to reflect on what he had just witnessed.

“I’ve served 22 and a half years in the army and I’ve come from Barry, near St Angus, this morning,” he said at 6am. “I drove down this morning and it took about an hour and a half. I had to do it, it was the obvious thing [to do].”

Reverend Sheila Cameron, a retired priest in the Scottish episcopal church, (right) made friends with David Gardner, 56 and his wife Jo, as they waited in line. (The Independent)

A small pile of flowers was building at the exit to the church and one card read: “From Darek Luszczynski, who once had the unexpected privilege of seeing her late majesty travelling in London. God speed Ma’am.”

The Queen’s coffin will lie in rest at the cathedral until 3pm on Tuesday when it will be flown to London to lie in state for four days at the Palace of Westminister.

Mourners have been warned that the queues there are likely to be very long, with people needing to “stand for hours, possibly overnight” with very little opportunity to sit down.

On Monday night, many in Edinburgh had queued for five or six hours. Mitch Stevenson, who stood in line for just under five hours with his sister, said they were “overwhelmed with the power and emotion of the occasion” after making it into St Giles’ cathedral just after 1am.

“It was a very important occasion for us - we lost our mum earlier this year and she would have loved to have been able to go, so we went for her memory also,” he added.

At 6pm on Monday, visitors were warned that they could be waiting for 10 hours before they were granted access to the church.

Wei Hsien, 24, and Chien Tseng, 23, were out early to join the long queue into the cathedral. (The Independent)

Wei Hsien, 24, and Chien Tseng, 23, both management students, who were quite far up the queue, said they had already been waiting for two to three hours.

"It wasn’t this long when we joined it," he said, looking around at the packed park. "It was probably only 200/300 metres long then."

"I think the end is maybe over there", he said, pointing over into the distance.

Reverend Sheila Cameron, a retired priest in the Scottish episcopal church, had been waiting for about an hour and had made friends with the people around her.

"I just don’t know how long it’s going to take. It’s standing for hours that’s going to be quite trying quite honestly," she said.

"It’s an absolutely once-in-a-lifetime event, it’s never going to happen again.”

The queue to view the Queen’s coffin at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh was eventually closed around 12.30pm. The Scottish government said some 26,000 people had viewed the late monarch’s coffin by the time the queue was closed, with the final people set to move through on Tuesday afternoon.