Student sit-ins may have been a popular feature of campus life in the early seventies but they were not generally associated with royal visits. Authorities at Stirling University were hugely embarrassed at the reception given to the sovereign. What had begun as a peaceful protest degenerated in a

drunken melee, with the Queen being jostled as she moved through the foyer. Later, as she was leaving after the four-hour visit, drunken students trampled flower beds and mobbed the royal car, singing obscene songs.

Outraged reaction to the students' behaviour centred on one sociology student, Jack Mackie, who was pictured drinking heartily from a bottle as the Queen passed him on her way to the grounds. He claimed later

he had only been wishing her slainte mhath, or good health.

Few escaped criticism - the university authorities for allowing bars to stay open, the students for using the bars a little too freely, and even the police for not taking a firmer hand. The Conservative Party, meeting in Blackpool for its annual conference at the time, sent a message to the Queen expressing ''deep concern at the attack made on her person'' and the party's chairman in Scotland, Sir William McEwan Younger, condemned ''the disgraceful and outrageous riot''.

The students themselves were none too happy at being branded as drunken louts and hundreds signed a petition apologising to the Queen.