The Queen was rarely happier than when she was escaping the flashlights of London and spending some quality time in Scotland.
She made regular sojourns to the north-east of the country, but was also passionately in love with the Highlands and spoke about the rugged beauty and serene tranquillity of so many places in the region throughout her long life.
The monarch visited the Highlands in 2010 when she enjoyed a nostalgic reunion with her family at her late mother’s far north summer retreat Castle of Mey.
The visit was at the end of a two-week trip on the luxury cruise boat Hebridean Princess, which ferried her on an evocative journey to some of the most remote parts of Scotland.
In a break with tradition, she wore trousers to disembark from the vessel at Scrabster.
Hint of old tradition
The scene harked back to the days when the Queen Mother used to greet the royal yacht at Scrabster and host a lunch or picnic in the grounds of the 16th Century Caithness castle every summer.
The tradition died when Britannia was decommissioned in 1997, but in 2010 the Duke of Rothesay took on his late grandmother’s role as he welcomed the royal family at the end of their cruise.
The Queen, wearing a purple checked jacket and a sunflower-patterned headdress, was last off.
Welcoming the party on the quayside was the then Lord Lieutenant of Caithness Anne Dunnett.
Miss Dunnet was made a CVO – Commander of the Royal Victorian Order – when she turned 75 and retired as Lord Lieutenant in 2017. She met the Queen several times during her career and held her in the highest of regard.
She remembers the visit to Castle of Mey in 2010. Miss Dunnett, of Wick, said: “It was wonderful that she visited here. I remember Prince Charles was very pleased that she was here.
“It was always a great honour to meet her. I used to think, ‘am I really here?’
“I have the utmost respect for her, for her patience. She is just quite remarkable. I have always admired her. She is very thoughtful and always seems to do her homework.
“When I first met her, her greeting to me was, ‘another Dunnett, and not a relation’. My predecessor was Graham Dunnett, who was not related to me.”
Prince Charles later saw off his guests at Wick Airport, where they boarded an aircraft of the royal flight on their way to their annual stay at Balmoral on Royal Deeside.
Warm reception when Queen visited Inverness
It was a quiet affair compared to Her Majesty’s official visit to Inverness in 1981, when an estimated 10,000 people lined the streets when she and Prince Philip came as part of a Highland tour.
The size of the crowds testified to the affection in which the royal family was held and there were people of all ages and from every background among the throng.
The Queen wore an azalea pink summer coat and matching hat. The royal couple met a number of dignitaries, including members of the Inverness District Council, during a visit to the Town House before going to the Station Hotel for lunch.
The couple subsequently went to Beauly where they were greeted by a crowd of about 4,000. It was the first visit to the village by the royal family for 400 years and, once again, the response from the crowds was overwhelming.
Her Majesty has visited Fort William twice, in 1958 and again in 1991. On both occasions she arrived by sea onboard the yacht Britannia.
However, not all of the Queen’s links to the Highlands are happy ones.
On August 25 in 1942 her uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent, and 13 other men died in a plane crash in Caithness.
The RAF Sunderland flying boat carrying the 39-year-old prince was flying from Invergordon to Iceland. But it crashed into the 800ft high Eagle’s Rock in Caithness.
It was a tragedy which stunned the nation and cast a cloud over the young Queen.
But she never allowed it to prevent her from visiting the Highlands and marvelling at the warmth of the reception.
Conversation