Royal Highland Show: A time honoured pageant steeped in history

Published on Monday 20 June 2011 13:41

MANY of the MSPs who now make a regular visit to the RHS will not know that the first show was held in 1822 in the grounds of Queensberry House, which nowadays forms part of the Scottish Parliament.

The original event was held in December, and the whole focus of the livestock entries was on the production of fat cattle ready for the Christmas market. Sheep were represented by New Leicesters and there were also two pigs, which were described in The Scotsman as "beautiful".

Just short of 200 years later, livestock entries have expanded to a point where more than 5,000 cattle, sheep, goats, horses and poultry will compete for the silverware.

Within a few years of the first show the directors made the decision to take it around Scotland, with the first one away from Edinburgh taking place in Glasgow in 1828, followed a year later by a show held in Perth.

This itinerant system of taking the show around the country was continued for the next 130 years until the show settled down at its permanent Ingliston site in 1960, following a decision by the directors that the costs of setting up and dismantling the annual show had become unsustainable.

Looking at the logistics of the traveling show, it was exactly 100 years ago that the 1911 show was held in Inverness. Long before the gates opened the directors had to deal with a whole range of issues such as proximity to a railway station, and having a plentiful supply of water and fodder as well as hotel accommodation for the judges and visitors.

With no road transport for livestock in those days, the show site had to be within walking distance from the nearest station. The show directors often relied on the local council installing a water supply for the show animals.

As soon as the show came to an end, great loads of timber were transported by rail from one site to the next, most of the timber being used to create a fenced off area so that everyone had go through the gates and pay their admission on entry. But there was also the wood for the various pavilions that were part and parcel of the traveling shows. While the various trade stands might make do with tented accommodation, there was a more permanent appearance to the important stands. There was a special place for the Dominions' pavilion where younger generations were enticed to emigrate by photographs of prairies full of wheat in Canada or huge landscapes covered with sheep in New Zealand and Australia.

In those days also there were large dining rooms with a choice of either first or second class premises for those needing refreshment. But the refreshments did not end there as the end of show dinner was a lavish affair with records of more than 30 toasts being drunk in the evening.