BY the time the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston winds up tomorrow, 200,000 people are expected to have visited it and caught sight of the 7,000 cows, sheep, horses, goats and poultry on show. Organised by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society, the event is billed as a showcase for the best of Scotland’s agriculture and rural life.
It was just as popular in 1964 when the Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home and his wife Elizabeth visited the show, although there was some concern expressed in The Glasgow Herald that visitor numbers were down from the previous year.
The Herald also reported that visitors to the show would still be able to see the £25,000 worth of pigs exhibited even though the animals lay under the threat of swine fever. There was no danger to public health, readers were told, but the animals would have to wait at Ingliston for four days at least, maybe even for 28.
Ministry of Agriculture veterinary authorities discovered a suspected case at Portobello and eight animals from the herd were at the show. The scare happened on the second day while the Queen Mother was visiting.
The owners of the herd were twin sisters Miss Mattie Park and Miss Jean Park. “Yesterday we were up in the heavens because of our show successes,” said Miss Mattie Park. “Today we are right down in the dumps.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here