Return to Balmoral | Four years after the death of Queen Elizabeth II

Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen's doctors are concerned for Her Majesty's health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral. The day will stay with me forever. I'll never forget checking my phone, discovering many missed calls. As the hours passed, things weren't looking good. Then the dreaded news. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and the Queen consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow. I'm Cameron Walker, GB News' Royal Correspondent, and I'm returning to Balmoral for the first time since that historic moment. Here's what I remember. I'm retracing my steps starting at Aberdeen Airport. My delayed flight landed three hours after the Queen's death was announced. Just so weird being back here kind of four years on and seeing the flags like they are now because when I arrived on the very late, on the 8th of September 2022, they were all flying at half mast. I couldn't hear a pin drop in the terminal and there were fully grown men on my plane in it was so surreal. The nearest village to Balmoral is Ballater, about an hour's drive from the airport, through the natural beauty of the Cairngorms National Park. Well as we approach Ballater, a lot of it is much the same because it was absolutely chucking it down with rain that day as well and it was pitch black and the contrast to London and even the contrast to Aberdeen of Royal Deeside is breathtaking. You've got beautiful hills, beautiful mountains and trees, everything's green and lush because there's so much rain, far less stressed out than perhaps I was that day. But it is that peacefulness that descends on you when you enter this part of the Cairngorms in Scotland is quite something. A quick pit stop before Ballater, catching up with the local MP Andrew Bowie. He laid a wreath at the gates of It's hard to put into words just I think the the sense of pride that people here have and indeed had at the late Queen's attachment and the importance that she put on this part of the world and the sense that there was a turning of the page and that wouldn't be the same again. Dutted. I think she's a remarkable woman. I don't think there'll be anyone like her again. She's all I've ever known and all of us won't it be that we've only ever known the Queen here. It just feels like the end of an era. Meanwhile I finally made it to Ballater but there was a problem. When we got here it was almost midnight. For whatever reason another production company who will remain nameless stole one of our rooms. I think it's probably because they had a very similar name to us. All the hotel rooms understandably were completely booked up with production crews from all over the world. It was the biggest story of the century arguably and we had to share a room. Luckily we had a suite. I don't know how we managed to get a suite but we did and so I was very lucky and had the bed. My producer was very kind and had the sofa. My mind was racing. I got no sleep because all I was thinking about was the enormity of the 10 days that were about to happen. Well let's cross live right now to our Royal Reporter Cameron Walker who's outside Balmoral for us this morning. Cameron what are we expecting to happen? Well this bridge may look really quiet now but it certainly wasn't back then. There were miles of cables running from the gate with all the camera crews signal wise or whatever they call them, not very technical, all the way to their satellite trucks which was in that car park and yeah it was very very surreal because of course this is meant to be the private holiday home of the Royals and it is. But that day it became the focal point of the entire world so it was very different to what it is four years later. I watched Prince Harry leave Balmoral alone, returning to his wife Meghan in Windsor. The following day the wider Royal family including three of the late Queen's children and grandchildren thanked the crowds for the flowers outside the gates. Well a few days after the Queen died there was shock and sadness I think amongst those who arguably knew her best around here and that was the residents of Ballaston and the surrounding towns because they didn't see her as the Queen, they saw her as a neighbour. There is the first glimpse of the oak coffin bearing the remains of the late Queen followed by Daimlers and Range Rovers from the the Royal stable and we know one of them, probably the first, is carrying the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, the late Queen's daughter. It was very poignant for them I think when we had crowds of people on this very street as the coffin and the cortege was brought from Balmoral gates and down this street here and over the bridge towards Edinburgh for her to rest in St Giles' Cathedral. I just thought it was important to be here to give it a good send-off from Scotland really. We've given our whole life to our country. The thousands and thousands of people that turned out to pay their respects as it passed through I think demonstrated the attachment that this area has to the Royal Family and indeed the Royal Family have shown to this area. The Queen left Royal Deeside for the final time bound for Edinburgh, then to London and then to her final resting place in Windsor. A month later the new King and Queen visited Ballater to thank the local community for their support following her late Majesty's death. You know it's very peaceful here and very tranquil and you can see why the late Queen absolutely adored it and I suspect that's why she wanted to spend her final days here. That week that she passed was monumental and coming back here four years later, it's very poignant, it's very very poignant. And to know that you know it's now King Charles III who is up there in the castle and carrying on the traditions of his mother and inviting his family up to enjoy a castle which has been in the Windsor family since the time of Queen Victoria I think is very special and although the monarchy's changed slightly I suspect Balmoral and Royal Deeside will always remain.