Inverness Councillor Duncan Macpherson recalls the time he drove the Queen to Ardnamurchan lighthouse as he pays his last respects in Edinburgh saying 'it’s quite surreal and almost difficult to believe – what I’ve just witnessed at this moment in our nation’s history'
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A story that started on a journey to Ardnamurchan lighthouse in 1986 has come to a sad end at St Giles’ Cathedral and what Highland Councillor Duncan Macpherson said is a “moment in our nation’s history.”
He was speaking after he paid his last respects to Her Majesty the Queen in Edinburgh where her coffin was laying in rest after being moved from Balmoral where she died last week at the age of 96.
Among the mourners in Edinburgh on Monday night, he said there was a feeling that it was right the people of Scotland got a chance to pay their last respects to the Queen in Scotland.
"From the people queuing around me," he said. "I got the sense that they thought it was somehow appropriate that the Queen spent her last days in a place she loved, amid the peace and quiet of Balmoral.
"And they also felt that it was right that they got to pay their respects here in Scotland, which Her Majesty was always so fond of."
In the course of the day, Cllr Macpherson also bumped into Deputy First Minister John Swinney who he had met through his council work and who stopped to chat.
The Inverness South member’s ties to the Queen go back to a chance request by his former boss at Macrae and Dick Group Francis Hamilton about whether he knew the Kilchoan to Ardnamurchan road well.
Mr Hamilton was the deputy Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire at the time and he needed someone to drive Her Majesty the 14 miles from Kilchoan Pier to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and back in August 1986.
Cllr Macpherson picks up the story: “Naturally, I was thrilled to be invited to undertake this incredible duty and delighted to oblige.
“The Queen and her son Prince Edward travelled in the back of the vehicle and we chatted throughout the 14 mile round trip interspersed with a walk by the monarch up the 121 steps to the top of the UK’s most westerly mainland lighthouse.”
“As a thank you, I later received an invitation to the Royal Garden Party at Holyrood Palace the following summer, which I attended along with my fiancé and my parents and sister who received a separate invitation, as my late father was an Honorary Sheriff and Justice of the Peace in Fort William.”
But the story does not end there because in a remarkable coincidence when he was attending the Accession Proclamation of King Charles at the Inverness Town House he got talking to Lord Lieutenant James Wotherspoon of Inverness.
Cllr Macpherson said: “I only found out on Sunday after the Proclamation at Inverness Town House while chatting to the new Lord Lieutenant James Wotherspoon, that a young James was driving the brown Range Rover behind me on the day.
“He was the driver to Prince Andrew and his new wife Sarah Ferguson. His late father was Deputy Lord Lieutenant and is also pictured close to the car.”
Then, wishing to pay his respects to Her Majesty, Cllr Macpherson travelled to Edinburgh yesterday where he along with an estimated 20,000 others gathered on the streets and queued for hours to pay their respects.
Her Majesty’s coffin has been laying at rest in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh since Monday afternoon and where the public have a chance to file past until 15.00 today when it will be moved to London.
Cllr Macpherson was among the thousands who joined what he said was a queue extending for at least two miles from St Giles’ to the Meadows where to accommodate people the line zigzagged throughout the park.
Speaking last night, he said: “I’ve just been inside St Giles’ Cathedral, and filed alongside the coffin. It’s a poignant moment in history.
“While our group was inside, we were temporarily stopped and held there within the chapel by security staff as we were given a bonus of two extra minutes to pause at the Queen’s coffin.
“We witnessed them changing over all the guards on sentry duty at each corner of the coffin, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland and adorned with the Crown of Scotland placed on a royal blue cushion beside the wreath of flowers, Royal Archers and Police officers, policemen and policewomen in equal numbers, changing over.
“They were in white gloves and were also guarding her coffin. The two chaplains read a brief reading once the guard change was completed and only then were all those inside at that moment allowed to move on and exit out of the church.
“It’s quite surreal and almost difficult to believe – what I’ve just witnessed is a moment in our nation’s history.”
