The King and Queen have attended a private service to dedicate a memorial stone to Queen Elizabeth II, in the Edinburgh cathedral where her coffin lay at rest before being transported to London.
The stone is located in the floor of St Giles’ Cathedral, where in the course of a single day in 2022 more than 33,000 people queued to pay their respects to the late Queen.
The royal couple arrived at the building to cheers from a large crowd that had turned out to greet them despite the wet weather on Wednesday afternoon.
There they met senior figures from the cathedral before making their way up the aisle to the site near the cathedral’s Holy Table, where the coffin of the late Queen lay on September 12 and 13 2022.
Reverend Dr Scott Rennie, minister of St Giles’, held a short dedication service at the stone, during which he explained it had been commissioned “to mark the place where her late majesty lay at rest”.
He added: “Our sincere desire is also that this memorial stone will offer the many thousands of visitors from across the world, who come to this ancient place of faith, a renewed encouragement to live a life of commitment and service to other people and to the common good, as her late majesty did.”
After the service, the minister led a short prayer, following which Charles and Camilla stood side by side with heads bowed, in silence.
The square stone is formed of simple black slate and engraved with the Scottish crown and ER cypher, together with the dates when the coffin lay at rest on the cathedral’s Holy Table.
It was carved by Vincent and Roxanne Kindersley, of the Cardozo Kindersley workshop in Cambridge, which has undertaken commissions at a number of public buildings, including Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and the National Gallery.
After the service, Charles and Camilla spoke to the sculptors, praising them for the their work, with Charles adding that a piece they had done for the National Gallery was “absolutely brilliant”.
The pair also spoke with some members of the Royal Company of Archers – which functions as the monarch’s ceremonial bodyguard in Scotland – who had mounted guard at the cathedral while the late Queen lay at rest.
Speaking after the service, Reverend Dr Rennie said: “It has been a great honour and privilege to welcome their majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla back to St Giles’ for such a special event as we commemorate the late Queen Elizabeth, who visited the cathedral many times, with the dedication of the memorial stone.
“His majesty also has strong links to St Giles’, including taking part in the service of thanksgiving and dedication here following his coronation in 2023.
“It is fitting that St Giles’, which has been at the heart of Scottish civic and religious life for more than 900 years, was able to host the 33,000 people who came to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth.”
