'Symbolism and redemption': the repatriation of Alex Salmond

A few feet away stood several members of Mr Salmond’s close family accompanied by his great friend and political colleague, Kenny MacAskill. It’s 1.55pm on Friday and not one week has elapsed since Mr Salmond’s sudden death in Ohrid, North Macedonia.

Then his coffin, swaddled in a St Andrew’s Cross, emerges from the little private jet chartered by Sir Tom Hunter, his friend and admirer. The day now begins to offer up its own symbols and redemptions, visible to those with eyes to see.

Connor Sinclair, piper to former First Minister, Alex Salmond, plays the lament ‘The Bloody Field of Flanders’ (Image: Jane Barlow/PA)

Three hours earlier, an Honour Guard of the North Macedonian army had escorted Mr Salmond’s body onto the aircraft. Now, as Scotland comes out to receive him, two helicopters are preparing for take-off, bearing oil workers to their North Sea offices.

Scotland’s greatest ever First Minister and the party he dragged from the backwoods were each anointed by the work of these men and women and sanctified by the oil they mined. It seemed fitting that they too had been present on this runway.

Aberdeen Airport forms the gateway to the thrumming economy of Scotland’s north-east. On a helicopter trip, leaving from this very airfield in September 2014, just days out from the first referendum on Scottish independence, Mr Salmond had looked down at the green and gold patchwork squares below and said to me: “This is Scotland’s most well-stocked larder. These acres feed us and sustain us.” He could identify every village and neighbourhood through the clouds and from a height of 10,000 feet. Today that would all turn out to honour him.

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The legend NATS (National Air Traffic Services) is painted on the front of the Control Tower, stark and handsome in its 1970s brutalism. It possesses a listed status and is built on layered and receding concrete terraces. It’s designed as such so that the slight curvature of this sprawling airfield can be universally observed. This year it’s been celebrating its 90th birthday.

As the small jet lands, three workmen are dismantling the large NATS sign, perhaps for cleaning, or for its future replacement. This too seems an apt metaphor. Since Alex Salmond stepped away from the SNP leadership nine years ago, this party has slowly been dismantling itself. As his casket slides into the hearse which will bear it to Fraserburgh, 40 miles along the coast, the workers removing the signage all cease their labours and bow their heads.

Two years ago, they and their airport colleagues had stood to honour King Charles as he passed through here and to honour his mum, Queen Elizabeth who had died the previous day at Balmoral. Mr Salmond, who fought every day of his life to break up the royal family’s beloved kingdom, might not have appreciated the comparison, but for a few years before 2014 he had been the uncrowned king of this realm.

Lee McCann, Aberdeen Airport’s PR chief is a former newspaperman who was born and raised in this neighbourhood. He began his career on the hallowed Fraserburgh Herald and has very fond recollections of the region’s most favoured son. “He was always magnificent with us,” said Mr McCann, “and he made time especially for the younger reporters.

Moira Salmond looks on as the coffin of her husband, former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, draped in a Saltire, arrives at Aberdeen Airport. (Image: Jane Barlow/PA)

“It could have been an intimidating experience for a cub reporter with the actual First Minister of Scotland, but he was nothing other than a gentleman with us. He was our MP, MSP and then First Minister of Scotland. He passed through this place often and all got to know him. He would always stop and take an interest. He was one of us. It’s an honour for me to be here to see him home.”

Now, the cortege is on its way back through the airfield where another honour guard awaits, and the one which would have warmed Mr Salmond’s heart more than anything else. Around 50 Indy Bikers have gathered by the side of the airport approach road. As the cortege passes they set off behind it, all the way into Fraserburgh where Mr Salmond will lie before he makes his way to his final resting place in his home village of Strichen.  

In the days leading up to his final flight home, Alex Salmond’s closest colleagues in Alba had no real idea how normal, everyday Scotland would react to the news of his death. Would the ordinary men and women of this country and of his beloved north east come out to salute him? After all, this is a working Friday and this is happening during work-time hours. They needn’t have worried. You sensed a swelling in public affection and appreciation that’s confounded some of those media and political elites who are so often detached from the lives and preferences of real working people.

Yes Bikers in Fraserburgh as the funeral cortege of Alex Salmond arrives. (Image: PA Photos)

It began on Tuesday night at Hampden Park when Scotland fans chanted his name. As his cortege left the airport today little clusters of people began to form on laybys and roadsides; on motorway bridges and on the streets of every village into Fraserburgh.

Kenny MacAskill, travelling with Mr Salmond’s wife, Moira, said: “It was such a heart-warming outpouring of sorrow, goodwill and affection. And Moira was so moved and uplifted by it.”

Joanna Cherry, captured the mood of those who were closest to Mr Salmond in life and in politics. “Today has brought home the enormity of our loss to those of us who loved as well as admired Alex Salmond. I am heartbroken and I cannot begin to imagine how his wife and family are feeling. May he rest in peace and may the dream never die.”

On a main road near Mintlaw, a postal worker has stopped his van and removed his cap. He stands silently - head bowed – as the cortege passes. The real people of Scotland don’t need to be told who to free and who to blame.