Commonwealth Games Queen's baton relay arrives in Scotland

The 20th Commonwealth Games Queen's baton reached Scotland's capital Saturday to coincide with the Queen's official birthday.

Crossing the border from England, the relay first arrived at Heriot-Watt University, chosen as the site for Scotland's National Performance Centre for Sport.

It then moved to Murrayfield Stadium where it boarded a tram and made its way to the city centre to Edinburgh Castle, where a 21-gun salute at noon marked the Queen's official birthday celebrations, reports Xinhua.

After that, the baton travelled down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace, and then to Meadowbank Sports Centre and Stadium, the home of the previous Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

After taking in more of Edinburgh's communities, the baton was scheduled to be received at the Royal Commonwealth Pool and finally arrived at the open-air theatre in the West Princes Street Gardens, where a community concert was set to be held in the evening to celebrate the end of the relay in Edinburgh.

The Queen's Baton will travel to South Queensferry Sunday, and then to other local authorities in Scotland.

The entire baton relay in Scotland will cover 4,000 km, 400 villages, towns and cities with a total of 4,000 baton bearers and approximately 100 of them each day.

The entire 288-day relay concludes at the opening ceremony in Glasgow July 23, when the baton is delivered back to Queen Elizabeth II, who will read her message of welcome to the athletes of the Commonwealth.

The Queen's Baton Relay set off on its journey around 70 Commonwealth destinations to cover more than 190,000 km Oct 9.

Scotland previously hosted the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.