Once a year Edinburgh hosts the Royal Highland Show, the biggest agricultural show in the country. I think I read somewhere that it's been running for over 150 years, but perhaps I misread that so don't quote me on it! It is held over four days on the second last weekend of June, from Thursday to Sunday, and on Friday we headed along for a day out.
We used to go along to the show most years but for one reason or another we hadn't been since Alasdair, now 5, was a few weeks old and so everyone was really looking forward to it.
The show is really, really busy. Especially on beautiful days like it was on Friday and so to avoid the queues of traffic going into the show car parks we took the special bus that was provided from the centre of the city. I would highly recommend this to anyone in future years. It cost us a little bit more than it would have done to park the car but it was so very satisfying when the bus, in it's priority lane, passed the long queues of cars heading to the show!
There is so much to see and do inside the show ground.
One of the first things we watched were the blacksmiths in the forge.
I don't envy them their job, working so physically in such a hot environment and it was quite impressive to watch. James (14) said he would actually quite like to do that as a job as he loves making things. Actually, I think he quite fancies making some medieval weaponry!
There were lots and lots of free tastings in the various supermarket tents, as well as activities for children.
There were, of course, animals galore to see but pigs are my favourite.
Although I did rather like these impressive big Clydesdale horses.
The boys found something to do in most of the tents.
We saw some more displays of traditional skills, like drystane dyking.
We met up with my husband's sister, who was attending the show for work rather than pleasure. She works in the rural affairs department of the Scottish government but it looked to me like there was more pleasure than work when we met her at a lunch reception! There were no complaints from us though, as she invited us to join them for some of their buffet lunch.
One section of the show that I think appeals to little (and not so little) boys is the vehicles section.
The show really is huge and my photos don't really give the scale of how big it is. We spent 7 hours walking around and there were still things that we missed!
After all those hours walking in the sunshine, nearly all of them with me carrying Fraser in his sling, it was lovely to find a relatively quiet, shaded spot and sit down for a while on our picnic rug.
A lovely end to a lovely day.
When the State Fair comes around, one of my favorite parts is the agricultural part and the animals.. and I am like you, I love those pigs, they are just so cute. The Clydesdales are beautiful too, like you said. Our neighbor has draft horses, and we have loved having them in view. Loved hearing your music maker in the previous video; Fraser is getting big, and so cute.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Pam