It's A Double Delight

- Garry Fraser

ONE is fast approaching its 200th birthday, while the newer kid on the block has just passed its 29th year. The first is the Royal Highland Show, which runs from June 22-25, and the second is the Scottish Game Fair from June 30-July 2.

Both are annual highlights in Scotland’s agricultural and rural calendars, attracting thousands of visitors each year. Both generate millions for the Scottish economy and both attract visitors of all ages and from all over the country.

The first site of the RHS was where the Scottish Parliament now stands in Edinburgh’s Cannongate. It then endured a nomadic existence, touring round towns and cities all over Scotland before moving to its current permanent site at Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, just outside Edinburgh, in 1960.

Show manager David Jackson shrugs off the responsibility of steering such a prestigious event on a steady course, keeping tradition alive but bending to consumer demands in the modern agricultural age.