King Charles is heading to Northern Ireland, leading the mourning for Queen Elizabeth in the four parts of the United Kingdom before his mother’s coffin is flown to London ahead of four days of lying in state.
After a silent vigil attended by Charles, his sister Anne and brothers Andrew and Edward at St Giles’ Cathedral in the Scottish capital Edinburgh on Monday, people queued overnight to file past the queen’s coffin on Tuesday.
Charles, 73, is travelling to the four parts of the UK before the Queen’s funeral on September 19.
In Northern Ireland, people started to line the streets at Hillsborough Castle, the monarch’s official residence, ahead of his visit.
“We came out to pay our respects to Queen Elizabeth because she was a fantastic queen and very loyal to Northern Ireland and we wanted to be here to welcome the new king,” said Heather Paul, 61, holding flowers and a small Union Flag.
“We think Charles will be a fantastic king, he’s had a very long apprenticeship and I think he will follow on in the Queen’s footsteps,” said Paul.
He is due to arrive later on Tuesday from Scotland, where he followed the Queen’s coffin up Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and was joined by his siblings for a 10-minute vigil at St Giles’ Cathedral. They stood, heads bowed, at the four sides of the coffin while members of the public filed past.
“We were desperate to be here to show our respects.” said Will Brehme, an engineer from Edinburgh, who arrived in the early hours of the morning with his partner and 20-month-old daughter sleeping in a baby carrier.
“It is a moment that will live with us forever. When you think that she worked all of her life for us it is the least we could do.”
Elizabeth died on Thursday in her holiday home at Balmoral Castle, in the Scottish Highlands, at the age of 96 after a 70-year reign, plunging the nation into mourning.
Charles, who automatically became king of the UK and 14 other realms including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Jamaica, will be joined by new Prime Minister Liz Truss
In Belfast , he will meet senior politicians and faith leaders and attend a service at the city’s St Anne’s Cathedral before returning to London.
A potent symbol of the union, the Queen in her later years became a major force for reconciliation with its Irish nationalist foes, with her state visit to Ireland in 2011 the first by a monarch in almost a century of independence.
Charles has also spoken about the murder of his great uncle Lord Mountbatten, to whom he was very close, in Ireland by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1979, saying the death had given him a profound understanding of the agonies borne by so many people in the country.
The Queen’s coffin will leave Scotland for the first time since her death when it is flown to London on Tuesday evening and then driven to Buckingham Palace.
On Wednesday, it will be taken on a gun carriage as part of a grand military procession to Westminster Hall where a period of lying in state will begin until September 19.
By Padraic Halpin and Andrew MacAskill in BELFAST
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