Queen Elizabeth II's coffin to leave her beloved Balmoral

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II's coffin is leaving her beloved Scottish estate Balmoral Castle on Sunday as the monarch who died after 70 years on the throne begins her last journey back to London for a state funeral.

Six gamekeepers from the Balmoral, the summer retreat where the queen died Thursday, will carry the late sovereign's oak coffin from the castle’s ballroom to a hearse to begin a six-hour, 280-kilometer (175-mile) journey through Scottish towns to Holyroodhouse palace in Edinburgh.

Crowds are expected to line the route as the nation mourns its longest-reigning monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known. Early Sunday, flowers and other tributes — a small Paddington Bear toy, a hand-drawn picture of the queen — were piled up outside the gates of Balmoral.

Sunday's solemn drive through Scotland comes a day after the queen's eldest son was formally proclaimed the new monarch — King Charles III — at a pomp-filled accession ceremony steeped in ancient tradition and political symbolism.