The tributes at Balmoral have continued to grow on the day of the Queen’s funeral.
Mourners have gathered outside the gates of the Deeside estate to lay down flowers, flags and cuddly toys.
Several Paddington bears, as well as marmalade sandwiches, have been left outside the Queen’s favourite residence.
Locals and visitors from across Scotland have travelled to Balmoral to pay their respects since her death was announced on Thursday September 8, just 11 days ago.
Visitors to Deeside want to be close to Queen
Many of the tributes included personal messages, written by people who have been touched by the Queen’s death.
Some of them had children’s drawings and handpicked flowers from the surrounding Aberdeenshire countryside attached.
In many of the tributes, there was a sense of the warmth and affection with which the Queen was held in Royal Deeside.
The royal family has had links to Balmoral after it was purchased by Queen Victoria in 1852.
Since then the royals have continued to enjoy the rural atmosphere of the 50,000-acre estate.
Debbie Meyers, from southern California, said: “We’ve been planning our Scotland trip for two years. We actually flew in to London a week ago on Sunday, right after the Queen passed, and we were there when all the people were flocking to lay flowers at the castle there.
“Then we boarded a train and went to Edinburgh, and we were there while the Queen was laid in St Giles. We were fortunate enough to see her transported through the streets with the Royal Family as they were sending her back to London.
“We wanted to spend the funeral with the people of Scotland, so we intentionally looked for a pub that was open where we could do that. And of course we wanted to come to the castle to see the flowers and the gate.
“It’s pretty moving, I think we’re all blown away by the timing of our trip and to be part of this historic moment.
‘This is more personal than watching on TV’
The Queen first started visiting Ballater when she was a young girl with her father George VI on summer holidays, a tradition that has continued ever since.
It was where the monarch spent her final days before her death, even welcoming new prime minister Liz Truss to her private home.
And it has therefore become a focal point for tributes in the north-east and Scotland for those wanting to pay tribute to the UK’s longest-serving head of state.
John and Sylvia Easton, from Northumberland, said: “We’ve been a few times before, but we always seemed to come when she was in residence so we couldn’t actually come any further.
“We were up before with my daughter, she’s a real royal family fan. We came to get pictures to show her.
“She was family to them in this area. When there was flooding in this area, she went down and spoke to the people. And you could go to the church service, and she’d be there.
“She was royalty, but at the end of the day she was part of these people’s lives and she treated them like proper people.”
Lesley Scott, also from Northumberland, said: “We were on holiday in Aviemore, we have a holiday home there, and I just wanted to come here today and mark the day of her funeral at a place she loved very dearly.
“I just felt like I wanted to be here. This feels more personal and more special than watching it on the TV.”
Tributes from Braemar
The president of the Royal Highland Games Society, Peter Fraser, spoke to the BBC after Sunday night’s minute silence in Braemar.
“She was loved here, she really was, the whole family are. They fit into the area so well. They’ve done such a lot for the area over the years.
“Everybody will be on the television. Everything shut as far as I know on Deeside, shops, everything shut.
“And I’m sure everybody will be watching the service on the television, quite sure of that. There will be a lot of heavy hearts I can tell you.”
A minute’s silence was also held in the nearby village of Ballater on Sunday, as locals gathered around Glenmuick Church.
After her death, the Queen was given a final farewell tour of her special Aberdeenshire.
On Sunday September 11 the Queen left Balmoral for the last time in her hearse draped in the Royal Standard flag.
The Deeside villages of Ballater, Banchory, Aboyne, Drumoak and Peterculter all turned out to say goodbye.
The Queen’s funeral has been tipped to become the most watched television event in human history.
World leaders travelled from across the globe to attend. It is the first state funeral since Sir Winston Churchill’s in 1965.
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