The Queen’s coronation was celebrated with gusto the length and breadth of Britain in 1953 – and the Highlands and Islands were no different.
Even the most remote of communities joined in the pomp and circumstance.
In Inverness, the coronation was marked with huge parades of youth organisations and dignitaries through the city.
Invernessians had taken part in weeks of fundraising to pay for parties and decorations.
A novel approach to raise cash at one Inverness pub even made headlines in Aberdeen – punters put coins in their beer and stuck them on a mirror in the shape of a crown.
Youths paraded in Inverness
As the coronation approached, he Highland capital was bedecked in red, white and blue, with the Town House draped in Saltires and Union Jacks.
Endless strings of bunting were woven across streets in the town centre, flip-flapping in the breeze and adding to the pageantry of the occasion.
While the handsome buildings of Academy Street and Union Street were strung with great swags and banners.
On May 31, members of the city’s Boys’ Brigade, Scouts, Girl Guides, Brownies and cadets were lead by pipebands in a mass parade through the streets of Inverness to the East Church.
Forming up on the cobbles of Academy Street, hundreds of youngsters stood smartly with their colours held high.
It was a blustery, but bright day, for the parade participants, and the proud parents lining the streets to watch.
Formalities and fireworks
The Coronation parade on June 2 featured more senior members of Inverness’ society, but it was a dreich day.
It was quite the spectacle; a winding parade of dignitaries in their ermine-trimmed cloaks, veterans, airmen, sailors, kilted soldiers, and ministers as far as the eye could see.
They trudged from the Old High Church, through the streets in the drizzle to the booming beat of the pipeband.
Despite the weather, the pavements were packed with onlookers.
They passed the municipal buildings where the salute was taken by the senior magistrate before assembling in the town square for an inspection.
The parade then set off to the Town Hall where the royal toast was pledged.
Later, the formalities of the day gave way to more light-hearted celebrations of merriment, fireworks and a bonfire.
Coronation celebrations on islands
The Evening Express ran special coronation reports from Scotland’s northern outposts.
Arguably the farthest north was Haroldswick on Unst in the Shetland Isles.
Answering the phone in Baltasound was Mrs Mouat, who ran a guesthouse there.
She said: “We are all siting round the wireless listening to the procession. Everybody else in the islands seems to be doing the same.
“The weather is blustery but dry so we should have a grand day at our picnic.
“We are going to dance the night away here in halls and on top of Saxaford Hill.”
There was great excitement for a 14-year-old Shetlander – army cadet A Manson who was one of 21 lads chosen to attend the coronation in London.
His glee wasn’t around the gravitas of the coronation, but seeing a train for the first time as he joined other cadets boarding a service from Aberdeen to London.
Lonely lighthousemen celebrated too
From the north to the west, ringing in from Carbost on the Isle of Sky was Mrs Steele a schoolteacher whose voice came through “clear and strong”.
What were Her Majesty’s subjects on the west coast doing to celebrate?
Mrs Steele’s family were also “glued around the wireless” and the village was very quiet.
But her island report offered a chillier outlook on the weather than London.
June 2 was an unseasonably cold day, even by London’s standards, but Mrs Steele reported that on Skye they had sleet, with “fresh snow on the Coolins for the first time since February”.
Mrs Steele added: “At night we are going to have dancing and a huge bonfire.
“Mr Donald McInnes, who is 96, and our oldest resident, is going to light the bonfire.
“We should have a wonderful day.”
Heading over to Callanish on the West Coast of Lewis, the loneliest coronation party was taking place.
Three men manning the isolated Flannan Isles lighthouse celebrated as best they could.
They decorated the lighthouse with flags and bunting, and had ate a special coronation dinner they had prepared while listening to the wireless.
At night, they set off fireworks which were seen by the villagers of Breascleit, their shore station.
In return, the lighthousemen glimpsed the cheery glow of the villagers’ bonfire.
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