Details of the British government’s plan for the Queen’s death — Operation London Bridge — have been well-reported over the years.
But now that the Queen has died in Scotland, a second, lesser-known plan called Operation Unicorn has to unfold first.
The Queen’s body will be carried in procession through Edinburgh’s medieval heart before a slow train journey past huge crowds of mourners on the way to London.
Here’s how Scotland’s Operation Unicorn is unfolding.
Unicorn lays out how the Queen’s body will be taken from Balmoral to London.
It is expected her body will be transported from Balmoral to the nearby city of Aberdeen on Friday morning local time.
It will then be loaded onto the Royal Train for a journey down Scotland’s east coast to the capital, Edinburgh.
In Edinburgh, the Queen’s coffin will lie at the official royal residence, a medieval palace called Holyroodhouse, for a day.
The next day her body will travel in procession up Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile to the ancient St Giles’ Cathedral, near Edinburgh Castle.
Holyroodhouse and St Giles are expected to be the main sites for people to pay their respects in Scotland.
Following the ceremonies in Scotland’s capital, the next day the Queen’s body will be put back on the Royal Train for the journey south to London.
The train will travel from Edinburgh’s Waverley station to St Pancras in London.
Once the Queen crosses the Scottish border, Operation Unicorn ends and Operation London Bridge commences.
Members of the armed forces and emergency services will form an honour guard on every platform of the route.
In London the Queen’s body will lie in Buckingham Palace’s throne room before being placed onto a gun carriage for the journey to Westminster Hall, where an official period of lying in state for four days will begin.
On the day of the funeral, the Queen’s coffin will be carried to Westminster Abbey as the chimes of Big Ben ring out across the city and the country grinds to a halt.
