Mourners camp overnight as crowds queue on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile as they wait for Queen’s coffin

Wellwishers were today turned away from Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile after huge crowds and thousands of mourners descended upon the Scottish capital to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II.

Large queues of people were pictured lining up with flags bearing the Union Jack and colourful homemade signs outside St Giles’ Cathedral as the sun’s first light began to break through the morning clouds on Monday.

But by midday, Police Scotland officers were preventing any newcomers from joining the swelling crowds that had lined the narrow streets around the 12th century stone cathedral as city officials warned of significant disruption ahead of the proceedings.

Two primary schools and an early learning centre in the Old Town area of Edinburgh had earlier been closed due to disruption, as thousands lined up for the first chance to pay their last respects to the Queen’s flag-draped casket.

Tourists from as far away as Mexico and California queued along the Royal Mile in preparation for the Queen’s cortege passing by, as Police Scotland snipers trained their eyes on the crowd as they prepare to protect King Charles and other senior royals as they walk within touching distance of well-wishers later this afternoon.

The Queen’s oak coffin will take a circuitous journey back to Edinburgh. On Monday, it will be taken from Holyroodhouse to nearby St. Giles’ Cathedral, where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be flown to London ahead of the state funeral. 

King Charles III will walk behind his mother’s coffin in a sombre afternoon procession leading from Holyroodhouse palace – where it arrived on Sunday after making a six-hour road journey from Balmoral Castle – to the cathedral. 

The King will be flanked by soldiers as they proceed down the historic Royal Mile, before arriving at the 12th century grey stone cathedral, where it will be topped with the Crown of Scotland and remain for 24 hours.

Inside St Giles’ Cathedral, senior royals, the new monarch and a congregation drawn from all areas of Scottish society will attend a service of thanksgiving that pays powerful tribute to the Queen’s extraordinary life. 

It comes as heavily armed police and security services yesterday formed rings of steel outside the Palace of Holyroodhouse and St Giles’ Cathedral – as up to 10,000 officers prepare to be involved in the biggest single security operation the country has ever seen.

Specialist police teams and intelligence officers are understood to have cancelled holiday leave as part of a massive, cross-agency security task for the Queen’s funeral.

Hundreds of foreign dignitaries from across the globe and hundreds of thousands of mourners are anticipated in the capital are set to create an unprecedented ‘security headache’.

The operation will ramp up throughout the week as the Queen’s body is flown back to London before she is set to lie in state at the Palace of Westminster.

Families with children took up places along the historic route that the Queen’s coffin will take from Holyrood Palace and St Giles Cathedral this afternoon.

Among them were two friends who had traveled to Edinburgh overnight to witness this ‘important historical event’.

Travel agent Marisa Ippolito, 61, from Manchester, told MailOnline: ‘I came here to pay my respects and to witness this important historical event. It is very sad but I wanted to be here and see it myself.

‘Also I believe that the Queen created this situation, of spending her final days in Scotland to preserve the Union.’

Her friend Karyn Ward added: ‘It’s fortune that the Queen passed away here in Scotland so the we Scots can show how much she mean to us.

‘So I’m here to celebrate this wonderful woman. And to be here across the road from St Giles Cathedral and see it all.’

Mother-of-two Caroline Jolly decided to take her son, Ryan, 13, and daughter Neve, 5, out of school so they could witness this historical event.

Caroline, from Lanarkshire, told MailOnline: ‘I felt compelled to come and be here. We’re only an hour away so I told the kids we’re going.

‘I want them to remembering this event and to be able to tell their children that they were here to pay their respects to the Queen.’

Mario and Melissa Tello, both 31 from Mexico, were also in the Old Town on Monday to pay their respects.

Mr Tello, a business owner, said the couple planned to stay on the Royal Mile until the procession passes on Monday afternoon.

He said: ‘Our train is at 7pm, I think we will stay here until the Royal family arrives for the service.

‘We were travelling here from Canada when we heard the news and we were very sad.

‘The Queen was a very nice person. We love Scotland, we have always wanted to come here and we have chosen a special time to come.’

Edinburgh City Council leader Cammy Day told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme the city was expecting large crowds on Monday.

He said: ‘We’re expecting tens of thousands of people to be up and down the High Street as Her Majesty comes up to St Giles’ and then onwards from there tomorrow.

‘Our advice to people is to get to the city centre as quickly and early as you can, use public transport because the city has diversions or road closures.

‘We are looking forward to welcoming tens of thousands of people to give Her Majesty the send off that the city will give her.’

He said the queue from St Giles’ Cathedral could potentially spiral back as far as The Meadows as people wait to pay their respects.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said ‘the Queen loved Scotland and Scotland loved the Queen’.

He added that the strength of the connection between Scotland and the royal family was evident as people lined up to pay their respects as the Queen’s cortege passed through the nation on Sunday.

Asked if the connection is still there with the new King, Mr Ross told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Yes, and I think particularly with the Accession Council making the point that the new King swore his allegiance to uphold and protect the Church of Scotland, the fact that the royal family are here today and there’ll be a service of thanksgiving at St Giles’, and then in the Scottish Parliament we will also be paying tribute to the late Queen and also pledging our allegiance and support to the new King and providing that support.’

He added: ‘The Queen loved Scotland and Scotland loved the Queen and I think we showed that yesterday.

‘I think we’ll see that again today with the service of thanksgiving and I think it is a fitting tribute to the late Queen that Scotland is able to play this role at this early part in the national mourning.’

The House of Commons and the House of Lords will today come together in Westminster for a Motion of Condolence, which the King will attend. 

He will address MPs and peers for the first time as monarch, before flying to Edinburgh to attend Scottish Parliament later today.

At 12.45pm, the King and the Queen consort will arrive at Edinburgh Airport and travel to the Palace of Holyroodhouse where Charles III will inspect the Guard of Honour.

King Charles and the Queen Consort will then fly into the Scottish capital and travel to the palace to inspect a guard of honour. At 2.35pm, Charles and Camilla will join a procession to St Giles’ Cathedral 1,200 yards away. 

The procession will consist of a hearse, flanked by the Bearer Party of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and the detachment of The King’s Body Guard in Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers. 

The King and other senior members of the Royal Family will walk the 1,200 yard route on foot. 

King Charles will be joined by his brothers, Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, his sister, the Princess Royal. 

There is speculation that Prince William, Prince Harry and their wives Kate and Meghan will also be there after their shock reunion outside Windsor Castle on Saturday.

It is expected that her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence will also join on foot – while the Queen Consort and other members of the monarchy will follow in cars.  Once laid in St Giles’ Cathedral, the Crown of Scotland will be placed on the Queen’s coffin.

This afternoon, King Charles will hold audiences with leaders, and speak at the Scottish parliament.  His journey will mark the start of tour of the nations.

At 7.20pm, the King and other family members will mount a vigil by the coffin. 

Full details about the royal mourners have yet to be released but there is speculation the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the new Prince and Princess of Wales, who on Saturday put on a united front during an appearance at Windsor Castle, will be part of the group.

The Queen will then lie at rest for 24 hours, with thousands expected to file past. 

After leaving England and visiting Scotland, Charles will at some stage travel to the other countries of the UK – Wales and Northern Ireland – known as Operation Spring Tide.

The Queen’s oak coffin, draped with the Royal Standard of Scotland with a wreath of Balmoral flowers on top, began its journey from the Queen’s summer sanctuary in the Highlands and the first settlement it reached was Ballater.

She stayed overnight at the palace yesterday before being moved to St Giles’ Cathedral – where earlier a large crowd had gathered to witness the midday proclamation of King Charles as head of state. 

Earlier in the day, a single motorbike police outrider led the way as the hearse travelled at a stately pace through the Aberdeenshire countryside. 

At one point, as the cortege travelled through Dundee, a lone long-stemmed flower could be seen on the hearse windscreen and in a rural part of the route farmers paid homage to the monarch with tractors lined up in a field.

Hundreds lined the main street of Ballater, the picturesque Victorian village closest to the Balmoral estate, where locals considered her a neighbour, as the Queen’s coffin was driven slowly through. 

Her Majesty and her family were often seen in the village in Royal Deeside, which she had visited since childhood and where the Royal Family have space to be themselves.

The hearse passed Glenmuick Church, where the Rev David Barr rang the church bells 70 times after the Queen’s death was announced.

Flowers were thrown into the hearse’s path by well-wishers on both sides of the road in Ballater, which was sombre and silent. 

The hearse slowed to a fast walking pace and mourners could clearly see the royal standard-draped coffin and the wreath featuring flowers from the Balmoral estate, including sweet peas – one of the Queen’s favourite flowers – dahlias, phlox, white heather and pine fir.

The security operation will ramp up throughout the week as the Queen’s body is flown back to London before she is set to lie in state at the Palace of Westminster.

It is the first time special forces teams including SAS units are expected to be pre-deployed to bases in London on a heightened state of alert in case of any potential attacks.

Police were granted a no-fly zone order over London on the planned day of the funeral on Monday September 19, which will follow 10 days of mourning.

As well as thousands of uniformed Metropolitan Police bobbies drafted into action, plain-clothes officers will also mingle among crowds to monitor any threats.

It is expected that other forces will be asked to provide officers under ‘mutual aid’.

On Friday police snipers were spotted on the roof of Buckingham Palace with guns trained on the crowds as King Charles greeted people outside after returning from Balmoral.