EVEN in 1965, Spain’s Costa Brava had a dubious reputation among certain people. That summer, this paper’s travel correspondent confessed that his heart sank when he learned that friends of his were building a house nearby.
“I had never been there,” he wrote, “but pictured it as a series of beaches, covered with red-nosed, red-kneed British, who from time to time would rise from the blistering sands and cry for steak and chips and cups of tea.” In the event, he was pleasantly surprised by what he saw, in the town of Palafrugell.
Lots of Scots that summer were determined to spend their holidays in Continental sunshine, Spain especially (so far as the Costa Brava was concerned, our man lamented the extent of tourism development in many of the places he passed through). But those Scots who opted for Europe probably had a better time than those who chose to remain at home, on what nowadays would be known by the ungainly expression, ‘staycation’.
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Herald DiaryLate July in many parts of Scotland was marked by monsoon conditions. Many “still pale-faced Glaswegians,” the Herald reported, had decided to cut their Scottish holidays short and return to the city.
A two-million gallon reservoir in Lanarkshire burst its banks. Flooding was reported in some areas of Edinburgh and the Borders. The main Glasgow-Carlisle railway line was blocked for an hour, and all trains were halted. A golf tournament at Dalmahoy had to be re-thought so that it could finish in time.
Portobello did not escape, either. The main image here (far right) is one of the best-known in the Herald archive, showing passersby on the promenade scurrying out of the way of surging sea-water. In fact, a 100ft-long stretch of railings and concrete supports there were swept away by high waves.
High winds also made their presence felt as far as the Sandhurst military academy, where the Queen was photographed trying to hold onto her hat.
A few years earlier, in 1960, various Scottish resorts took part in a five-towns publicity tour in the north of England in order to drum up tourist business in the ‘lean months’ of May and September. July was all very well, as that was the month of the Glasgow Fair, but the resorts, which included Skye and Dunoon, were keen to extend their holiday season.
In 1961 - when the image (right, bottom) was taken, showing tourists boarding the St Columba at Dunoon - positive results were being reported; Dunoon’s pier traffic increased by 15,000 in May, the same month in which Skye enjoyed a record-breaking Skye Week.
An Oban Week was lined up for September, and other towns, from Rothesay to Inverness, were reporting good business. “Scottish resorts,” said the Evening Times, “are realising at last that if they want a longer holiday season, they’ll have to go out and work for it.”
Glasgow always had its own attractions for those who stayed at home during the Fair, including the fairground at Glasgow Green, seen here (right, top) in the summer of 1952.
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