Your guide to the 2012 Royal Highland Show

This year’s show in Ingliston, which takes place between June 21 and June 24, will prominently promote produce from Dumfries and Galloway.The show would have been held in the Borders region this year had it not settled at its permanent base in 1960.

FACTS

• Attendance at this year’s Royal Highland Show is expected to exceed 160,000 people.

The last two attendance figures have broken through 180,000 mark with a record in 2010 of 187,644

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• Over 5,000 cattle, sheep and goats, horses and poultry will exhibit

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

FOOD

• The food hall will include over 100 exhibitors show-casing artisan food and drink produce.

• A rolling programme of events will take place at the Scotland Food and Drink Cookery Theatre with Lady Claire MacDonald appearing on Thursday and Friday and Aggie Mackenzie of Ready, Steady, Cook fame providing cookery demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday.

OUTDOORS

• World team Spey casting champion Eoin Fairgrieve fly fishing skills have seen him travel the globe passing on his expertise and he will be on hand at the show’s loch to show how to catch that elusive salmon or trout.

• The countryside area features a village which includes adventure activities, story-telling and garden displays livestock.

LIVESTOCK

• To encourage youngsters to get involved in livestock showing, handlers and showmanship classes for dairy cattle, sheep and Clydesdale horses will be held.

• The livestock focus will be on a cattle breed that was first imported from France in the 1960s. The Charolais is now part of the “beef establishment” in the UK and the World Charolais Congress is taking in the show as part of its 2012 itinerary. Reflecting the international flavour, the breed classes will be judged by Australian David Bondfield, who will select the females, with the bulls in the hands of Irishman Basil Bothwell, from County Cavan.

HORSES

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• The Royal Highland is the largest equestrian show in Scotland with classes for light and heavy horses, private driving, heavy horse turnouts, harness and grooming plus top-class show-jumping.

FARMING

• The winners of the RHASS Technical Innovation Awards, will be featured in the agricultural trade area. For the trade, the show is an opportunity to network, meet potential customers, and to secure business.

SHEEP SHEARING

• The all-action Sheep Shearing competitions are fiercely fought with competitors from around the world taking part.

The event takes place in the covered marquee in front of the Shearing Theatre.

HISTORY

100 years ago this week the show made its one and only trip to Fife when it landed in Cupar 1912.

Unlike today’s shows where there are numerous fast food outlets working from mobile sites, the main catering pavilion at the show took place in a large 120ft by 56ft tent and in order to keep the social classes apart, it had first and second-class public rooms.

There were major pavilions from Australia, Canada and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where the benefits of farming on these dominion lands were proffered to Scots who might be less than contented with their lot.

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