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ABC News
ABC News
National
Brianna Morris-Grant

Mourners pay their respects as Queen Elizabeth II's funeral procession makes its way through Scotland towards Edinburgh

People in the village of Ballater were among the first to view the Queen's funeral cortege, as it made a planned stop on its six-hour journey from Balmoral Castle to Edinburgh.

The coffin has been kept in Balmoral's ballroom since the Queen's death on September 8. 

With the accompaniment of Princess Anne, it was driven to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where it was then placed in the throne room.

The procession left Balmoral at 10am local time (7pm AEST) and travelled through north-east Scotland, with three main stops for dignitaries and the public to pay their respects. 

Some members of the public lined up in Edinburgh from the early hours of the morning. 

The gathered crowds in Ballater were all but silent as the hearse drove through the village streets, with city officials bowing their heads as it passed.

The cortege arrived in Aberdeen shortly after 9pm AEST, then Dundee around 11.30pm, before heading to Edinburgh.

There was a great sense of anticipation in Aberdeen, as people followed a feed on their phones of her approach from the west.

Then it was all over quickly, leaving them to reflect on sharing that moment in history.

Julianne Cole from Kyogle, NSW, just happened to arrive in Aberdeen for a Scotland holiday as news of the Queen's ill-health and then death broke.

"I felt it," she said.

"We've been talking about how it did actually hit us in an emotional way that I didn't expect because I'm not a Royalist."

Angela Mafuko from Zimbabwe, which was the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, said she had known the Queen her whole life.

"She was an amazing woman," she said. 

"To know that she's gone … to know that this kind of like her final day of leaving us.. it's heartbreaking."

"I was shaking."

At each stage of the lengthy journey across Scotland members of the public have waited sombrely to watch it pass. 

When the cortege finally got to Edinburgh thousands of people watched from the streets as the hearse travelled down the Royal Mile.

Her coffin was then carried into the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh where it will lay overnight.

Proclamation ceremonies were also being held around the UK, including in capitals Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.

These ceremonies were followed by 21-gun salutes. 

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