Pleasure pavilion

The article brought back so many fond memories to me of when I met my wife of nearly 49 years there and the times we subsequently spent there during our courting days.

I was stationed at Fort George at the time and Jean was in the last year of her nurse training at the Royal Northern Infirmary.

I was on one of the free buses from Inverness when I first spotted her and after getting to the Strath I had a dram for courage and asked her if she would dance with me.

She was the most lovely lady in the hall and I counted myself very lucky when she agreed.

We spent the rest of the evening dancing together and the rest, as they say, is history.

An interesting coincidence for me in your article was the date given for the Beatles gig in Dingwall. I can’t claim to have been there on that night. I was otherwise engaged on that day, being married in Thurso and spending my first honeymoon night in Inverness. Happy memories indeed.

Bryan R Elliot

Craighouse Terrace

Edinburgh

As the last surviving member of an Edinburgh band called the Sabres, I do remember Robert Hislop and his excellent band the Hurricanes (Letters, 30 August), and I know that we also played the Linlithgow Pavilion.

The early 1960s was indeed a magical time, when bands such as the Roadsters, the Crusaders and the legendary Ramrods from Carlisle would play for dancing at the many halls around Scotland, most now sadly gone.

My recollection of sleeping arrangements is quite different, however. We simply slept in the van.

Malcolm Parkin

Gamekeepers Road

Kinnesswood, Kinross