The Second Elizabethan Age came to an end at a remote castle beside the River Dee, as breathtakingly heavy rain fell on the purple heather landscape.
Standing outside the gates of Balmoral under an umbrella, the dismal weather felt right for accompanying such a moment.
The death of the best-known person in the world. The breaking of a link to a history that only a vanishingly small number of us remember. The accession of a king.
It all took place on Thursday at a home in the middle of Aberdeenshire.
Around me when I visited the entrance to the estate was a small number of journalists, limited by the difficulty in accessing Balmoral from different parts of the country.
But that remoteness was part of what made this area so beloved by the late Queen Elizabeth II – and also why she and her family are held in such high esteem by locals in Ballater and Braemar.
Almost everybody I spoke to in the two closest towns to the estate had a personal story about meeting the royals as they relaxed in the surroundings of the Cairngorms.
‘We’d see princes on their motorbikes in the moors’
Upholsterer Paul Spencer, who has lived in Royal Deeside for 40 years, said he had done much work around the estate.
He said: “Everybody’s worked, or somebody’s teenager has worked, at the coffee shop in Balmoral or done a bit of grouse-beating.
“The kind of thing you do to make a wee living on the side.
“I did a little bit of grouse-beating for Prince Charles in the earlier days, and I was just down the road from the distillery so you’d see them driving by or we’d see Prince William and Harry up on the moors on their motorbikes.”
Rachael Patterson, a bartender at the Balmoral Bar in Ballater, remembered seeing the Queen twice having cups of tea at a hut by the Dee in the town.
She added: “There’s a lot of respect for the Royal Family, even if you’re not a royalist you respect the work they do.
“Ballater is the place it is because of how much the family loves Royal Deeside.”
Balmoral was widely acknowledged to be among the Queen’s favourite residences, and aside from being spotted in Ballater, she was a reliable presence at local events such as the Braemar Gathering.
Her absence from the occasion last Saturday was keenly felt and prompted concern among locals who knew her love of the games meant she rarely missed it without good reason.
Queen first visited Braemar as a child
When I walked into Lamont Sporrans in Braemar, Alasdair Colquhoun was quietly slicing away at a leather belt under a single lamp in his workshop.
His shop holds a royal warrant for providing leather products to the now-King Charles III.
Mr Colquhoun said he had never visited the Gathering over his two decades living in the town, as it tended to be his busiest day of the year, but he said: “The Royal Family is very fondly thought of.
“Many of the original Braemarians knew her from when she was a child, when she used to come up with her father and mother for the games.
“And all of them will have had a close contact with her during that time.
“Several will have met her at the games, presented posies to her.”
North-east connection to endure with new king
That connection to Ballater, Braemar and the wider north-east is certain to endure as Charles takes over the duties of monarch from the late Queen.
Locals even suggested he had recently been spending more time at Birkhall, his residence on the Balmoral Estate, than in London.
But for now, the focus of locals will remain on paying tribute to the extraordinary life that came to an end in the Aberdeenshire countryside on Thursday.
Patrons of the Balmoral Bar fell silent as the news of the Queen’s death appeared on the pub’s television screens.
Some shed tears, and stood as the national anthem played.
Outside, the rain-soaked and heavy Union Flags placed around Ballater continued to wave in the wind.
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