Sir Sean Connery’s family have reportedly scattered his ashes in a private ceremony ahead of his 92nd birthday.
The actor’s widow Micheline Roquebrune, 93, is said to have travelled to his native Scotland with relatives for the ceremony to grant his last wish to be returned to his homeland.
Sir Connery’s actor son Jason, 59, and granddaughter Saskia are also understood to have made the trip to Scotland to bid a final farewell to the Indiana Jones and James Bond actor.
A 50-strong entourage, dressed in tartan, are said to have arrived at Edinburgh Waverley station on board the Royal Scotsman train on Thursday to the sound of a trombonist playing ‘King of the Swingers’.
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A source told the Daily Record: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw Micheline and her party step off the train.
“A trombonist began playing the famous song from the ‘Jungle Book’. Micheline walked very slowly arm in arm with a relative to her waiting car.
“She was small and petite but very, very glamorous and she was dressed in a beige cream coloured outfit as if she were going to a wedding. Everyone had on some sort of tartan.
“We understand Sir Sean’s ashes were scattered at various different points of importance to him in his life. It has all been building up to their final destination which was Edinburgh and Dalmeny yesterday.
“I thought it was brilliant to see the old-fashioned train and I felt like I was in some sort of movie scene.
“It was all so secretive because it’s all about Sir Sean’s final resting place.”
The group were said to have been taken from the station in a fleet of people carriers, and are understood to have later held a birthday party in Sir Connery’s memory at the Tudor Gothic mansion, Dalmeny.
His granddaughter Saskia shared a photograph of herself as a child with the actor, who would have toasted his 92nd birthday in October, alongside the caption: “Happiest of birthdays to my superstar.”
Sir Connery’s widow said after his death at their home in the Bahamas in 2020: “We are going to bring Sean back to Scotland – that was his final wish.
“He wanted his ashes to be scattered in the Bahamas and also in his homeland.”
She added earlier this year: “He was at his happiest on a golf course so as soon as it’s possible to travel, we will come to Scotland as a family and bring Sean’s ashes.
“I hope to scatter them on a golf course in Scotland as he always loved playing there.”
Jason, 59, had said in March his family would probably choose St Andrews to scatter the ashes because his dad had been a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and regularly played the famous Old Course.
He added: “I have memories of St Andrews always being sunny. It wasn’t, but we had special times there.
“He was a member of the R and A so I think probably that might be the place.”
Sir Connery said in 2008: “Scotland is my home and emotionally I’ve never left.”