An early morning departure and just over an hour’s flight later and with the show ground just a few minutes walk from Edinburgh Airport Arrivals we were eating a bacon sandwich and drinking a welcome coffee inside the ground just before 9am, in beautiful warm Scottish sunshine
A couple of years ago the BBC broadcast a series about the lives of a number of Highland farmers, from an ageing couple who had been crofters all their lives to a young couple just starting hill sheep farming to an enthusiastic pro who was building a prime herd of buffalo. We followed a small part of their lives through the seasons, gaining a flavour of these people’s tough outdoor lives and the implications for their families and some of the accompanying trades, the vets, shepherds and their dogs, the younger members of the ageing crofter families, the shopkeepers, butchers and market stall holders, et al. It was one of those gentle, multi-chapter series where we got to know the characters, the drivers of each family and their animals as they worked through autumn preparing for the coming winter, the harsh winter itself when the animals are brought into sheds so at least it’s not blowing a hoolie as it is out on the fells. Spring brings a long-overdue thaw and the first newborns then into summer when the animals are all outside and the scenery is wonderfully photogenic again. A summer highlight for many of the families was going down to the Highland Show in Edinburgh to enjoy a day or two off the farm and to show the best of their animals. Almost a whole episode was devoted to the show in a later programme and the judging outcomes for many of ‘our’ families. Medals won by their animals would help bring better prices for the stock when they were taken to market or stud auction.
The equestrian showground isn’t normally my cup of tea but a session of ladies riding their beautifully presented hunter horses sidesaddle and in full dress, i.e. long dresses, hats and face nets, was amazing.
There were country sport demonstrations like fly fishing, falconry, sheep dog demonstrations with ducks, working dog obstacle courses and dozens of country sport pop-up shops selling tweed, country coats, hats, sweat shirts and Aran jumpers.
There was a good crowd but not so many people that you couldn’t find a place at the rail to watch the goings-on. The many events were well organised with knowledgeable commentary over the tannoy and one of the show ring presenters was the only farmer we recognised from the tv series. There was coffee (some good, some awful), normal outdoor catering things to eat, various events throughout the day on the show ground, professional VIP areas for sponsor guests and breeder associations, it was a lovely day. Paula had picked up a few visit souvenirs en route and we caught a shuttle bus into the city and walked to our hotel opposite the Scott Memorial.
We had dinner at a restaurant near the castle walls, something we’d been looking forward to for months but we were disappointed, which was a great pity as we don’t think we’re that hard to please. Given we had booked our table nearly a year before we were clearly not favourite enough customers to be given a favourites table, the wine was memorable only because it was too expensive and our pre-dinner cocktails, curtain-raisers to the main event, were unremarkable which altogether put us into a rather harder-to-please mood than we should have been by the time the food came. The food which was actually very nice but they’d lost us by then. By way of example, I’ve forgotten what either of us ate, which is never a good sign.