The Queen’s posy that tempted a pony
WHEN meeting the monarch, etiquette would normally dictate that her subjects present her with a gift, not the other way around.
Unfortunately, that nicety appeared lost on Cruachan IV yesterday.
The Shetland pony, a mascot of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, had a cheeky nibble on the Queen’s flowers when she visited Stirling Castle to mark 70 years since she was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen was dressed in a pink Mulberry silk coat, a silk dress in similar shades and a matching hat by London milliner Rachel Trevor-Morgan.
Earlier in the day, the Queen and the Duke had visited the Kelpies sculptures in Falkirk.
The Royals led a flotilla along a new one kilometre stretch of canal before unveiling a plaque officially naming the section in her honour.
The Queen Elizabeth II Canal, which passes by the Kelpies near Falkirk, is the final piece in the £83.5million Millennium Link project that restored the nation’s inland waterways back to a navigable state for the first time in more than 50 years
One of the most complex sections of waterway ever built in Scotland, it dramatically improves access to the Forth and Clyde Canal’s eastern gateway.
Andrew Thin, chairman of Scottish Canals, said he was honoured to have the Queen in Scotland to celebrate the canal’s naming.
He added: ‘The Kelpies and the Queen Elizabeth II Canal are helping put Falkirk and Grangemouth on tourists’ “to see” lists the world over.’
Her Majesty’s visit to the Kelpies was marked with an airshow by the Global Stars stunt aerobatic flying team, who drew a spectacular ‘love heart’ in the sky using smoke trails.