Royals to visit Highland Games

Around 20,000 people were today expected to see the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh as they visited the annual Braemar Gathering in Royal Deeside.

The gathering was taking place at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park in Braemar from 9.30am to around 6pm.

Grampian police confirmed they expected up to 20,000 visitors at the event and warned travellers to take care due to expected delays along the main route.

John Macpherson, a press officer with Braemar Royal Highland Society, whose patron is the Queen, confirmed: "I think you can be 99.9% sure that the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh will be there, particularly with it being her Golden Jubilee year."

Asked if the Prince of Wales was expected to attend, Mr Macpherson said: "That's looking a bit doubtful."

Braemar is approached via the A93 Aberdeen-Blairgowrie road and police also reminded drivers to "allow a generous amount of time for their journey".

Police said they expected to direct traffic off the A93 at Fraser's Bridge and into Braemar along Cluniebank Road to car parks around the show field.

Bill Neston, secretary of the Braemar Royal Highland Society, confirmed the gathering was a much-needed focal point for locals and business in the community.

He added: "If we have a good day, we will have a big crowd, more than last year.

"Advanced tickets sales have been much better than last year and I estimate about 19,000 people will attend."

Mr Macpherson also confirmed the society was presented with their new banner depicting its coat of arms which was expected to hang in the Royal Pavilion during this year's event.

It was created and donated by Maureen and Ian Mennie from New Brunswick in Canada, who originally come from the north east of Scotland.

Mrs Mennie is severely disabled in one hand and spent around 200 hours sewing the banner, with Mr

Mennie helping with the design.

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