The baton, which is being used to stimulate interest in the Commonwealth Games, was relayed from Inverness to Aberdeen on Monday.

The theme adopted by runners for the day was "making a contribution to local communities".

The journey took the baton through the Grampian mountains, and included a brief handover in front of the Queen's residence at Balmoral.

Before the baton resumed its journey on Monday, organisers had to dry it off after using it in an effort to find the Loch Ness monster.

The Royal baton was used to look for Nessie

The organisers claimed to have seen something pretty weird when the baton was lowered into Loch Ness.

Event director Di Henry said the baton, which contains a device that can detect a pulse rate, was taken out by boat and sent to the bottom of the loch.

She said the baton had been put in a water-proof tube and lowered down 220m to the bottom on a cable from a deep scan vessel.

She said pictures from the baton were beamed onto a screen on a separate boat called the Jacobite Queen which was carrying about 100 guests.

The baton took 15 minutes to travel down to the bottom of the loch and 11 minutes to be winched back up again.

Ms Henry: "As the baton got near the top of the water there was a strange interruption. There was a thing in front of the camera.

'Something unexpected'

"It looked pretty wooden. It could have been wood or sea weed or it could have been Nessie.

"It definitely looked brown and it almost looked organic. Anyway, it slipped by and then the pictures cut out and soon after the baton broke the surface."

She said: "I'm not so sure we didn't see something. It was pretty weird what we saw but I wouldn't want to overstate it, but it wasn't something I expected myself."

The baton arrived in Scotland on Saturday and will go to Stirling after Aberdeen, before moving on to the Isle of Man on Thursday.