Mrs Maitland-Carew, wife of the Lord Lieutenant for Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale, the Honourable Gerald Maitland-Carew, spoke after the Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, became the first reigning monarch to visit the 16th-century castle, near Lauder.

Mrs Maitland-Carew told TheSouthern: “It was the most enormous honour. It was a thrill for us as a reigning monarch has never been to Thirlestane before.

“I spoke to Her Majesty and she said she had always longed to come here because His Royal Highness [the Duke of Edinburgh] had been to stay a number of times on private visits and as a result she had heard a lot about the castle.

“I think she enjoyed the day. She loves Scotland and has been to Lauder before on a very wet day for the Royal Burgh’s Quincentenary celebrations (in 2002), so it was nice that the sun was shining.”

“I think both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh love the Borders,” Mrs Maitland-Carew added.

“The crowd’s enthusiasm was wonderful and the Queen was thrilled to meet them – it meant a lot to her.”

An estimated crowd of 300 people gathered on the sun-kissed front lawn of the castle last Thursday to greet the Queen upon her arrival by helicopter.

Dressed in a purple thistle-coloured outfit, she was met by Mrs Maitland-Carew and Nicola Pringle, a pupil at Lauder Primary School, who presented Her Majesty with a posy of flowers in the colours of Nicola’s home town.

Once inside the castle, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were escorted into the drawing room to meet members of the public selected by Scottish Borders Council convenor Alasdair Hutton for their services to the voluntary sector in the region.

Others in attendance were SBC’s leader David Parker and chief executive David Hume, while former MP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Lord Steel of Aikwood, wore the tie of the Scottish Parliament, 24 hours after Her Majesty had visited Holyrood for its 10th anniversary.

After a private lunch with the Maitland-Carew family, the royal couple took time to speak with staff and volunteers in the castle rose garden.

And in her final act to mark the historic occasion, the Queen planted a tree with an engraved spade used by members of the royal family on previous visits to Thirlestane.

They include Prince Michael of Kent, the Duke of Gloucester, and Queen Mary in 1937.

One of those to meet Her Majesty was Valerie Haldane, a volunteer worker at Thirlestane.