The couple went on to Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, where they met pupils from a local primary school who took part in a competition to design coronation benches.

“Shall we give it a go?” The King said, before sitting down.

“It’s wonderful,” Camilla told six of the children as she surveyed the bench, decorated with a large crown, sceptre and orb, and an environmental theme of flowers and stags. “Did you all work on it together? Did you do the crown?”

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris hosted a brief private audience before they attended a garden party and planted a tree to mark the Coronation.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was among those in attendance.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill did not attend but said representatives from the party would be present at events during the couple’s two-day visit.

The Queen spent several minutes at the garden party speaking to DCI John Caldwell, who was shot multiple times by dissident republicans in Omagh, Co Tyrone, in February. The detective is understood to have had a private audience with the King earlier.

Meanwhile, Charles met the father of six-year-old Daithi MacGabhann, whose five-year wait for a heart transplant came to represent Northern Ireland’s political deadlock as Stormont failed to pass a new transplant law.