A former moderator of the Church of Scotland has shared a humorous story of being chauffeured by Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral.

Over the course of her 70-year reign, the Queen would invite many church ministers for weekends at her royal residences. 

Speaking to Sky, Rev Dr Hood said this was a great privilege.

"One of the joys of moderators and ministers in the Church of Scotland and royal chaplains is that you are invited to Balmoral and you spend the weekend with the Queen and the royal family who are there at that time. So you get that intimate detail and in the discussions that you have you realise her faith was so much part of her life, it was her life.

"It was humorous too. Once I was being driven by the Queen to a barbecue out in one of the forests. So you're thinking, 'I'm sitting in this limo and the Queen is driving me.'She had just got a new car. So we were driving in these very dark roads, to the barbecue and let's just say that the Queen, she didn't slow when she was driving. So we went through and suddenly a deer came out of the bushes in front of us. She very quickly briefly swerved and I said, 'Oh, well done, ma'am.' She said :'Yes, it wouldn't do to have the moderator in a ditch would it?'

On another occasion, Rev Dr Hood had been speaking at an event and made some comments about the position of women in the church. Her comments made the Sunday newspapers and when she returned from church at Balmoral the Queen was flicking through newspapers and said 'Making the Sundays I see moderator?'" 

The moderator said the Queen had a twinkle in her eye and was very quick-witted with a real sense of humour, especially when Prince Philip was there too.