This Is The Greatest Show
Eee AYE Eee AYE Ohh. It turns out you need one day of recovery for every day you spend at the Royal Highland Show. I’ve only just recovered from our two-day excursion, and I’ve been home for two days. Why? Who knows? But it could have something to do with the; gin, whisky, endless scran-samples, the walking past a baaa-zillion different sheep going “awwww” and then the convincing myself that I don’t need new garden furniture, repeatedly, till the cows come home.
Oh and the goats of course! You’ve just goat to go and see the baby goats.
We were only supposed to go to the show for one day, Friday. And we had it all mapped out. Head down the road on Thursday, stay at the Allan Ramsay Hotel in Carlops, nip along to the show for a “wee wander” and then drive back up to bonnie Aberdeenshire afterwards.
But when it got to 6pm on Day 1 and we had only covered 20 out of the 650 different stalls, we thought we best add another day onto our trip. So we booked a night at the Richmond Park Hotel in Bo’Ness and recuperated ready for day two. All it took was two days for me to fall hook, line and sinker in love with everything the show had to offer. Did I want to come home? No. Did I procrastinate about the journey and attempt to drag out the show for as long as possible? Yes. Did it work? Absolutely not. Aye 2.0 had a new back-massage cushion and nothing was stopping him from using this on the drive home in the Ford Vibrato. Here are some of our Ayelights.
Goats
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a mil… I’ve actually never said this. Where have goats been my whole life? They are adorable and massively entertaining. We ended up in a goat tent by accident and I could tell that as soon as we goat in, all himself wanted to do was get out. Because he knows what I’m like. He doesn’t take too well to me standing alongside all the other kids (the children type) “aww-ing” over the other kids (the goat type). But it was in this tent that himself realised why goatees are called goatees. And common sense like that can’t be bought.
Clydesdale Horses
Love em. Not allowed to ride them due to clumsiness. Want one anyway? Hell yeah! I love horses. So I was in my element watching the huge and beautiful Clydesdales strutting past me with their hair looking better than mine. It was here I also realised that horse jewellery is a thing (better known as equestrian jewellery). And I want some. Because if you can’t ride horses then you absolutely should wear tiny little silver ones on your blazer. Speaking of which… Check out Sculpture to Wear by Rosemary Hetherington (where I first came across beautiful equestrian jewellery). And speaking of horse things I didn’t know existed – Crafty Ponies! Crafty Ponies is a company which makes miniature soft toy ponies which can be used for educating young ones about horses. And 26 year-olds who also know very little.
Marvellous Crafts
Wow-wah Wee-wah! There are SO many folks crafting gorgeous products in this country that I didn’t even know existed. Did I spend ages weaving in and out of the craft tents? Yes. Do I want to do this every weekend? Yes. Would Aye 2.0 really let me loose on this every weekend? No way. So I made the most of it!
Some of my absolute favourites included Glass Art by Jo Barker, Dramoak who make whisky-themed accessories and Womble Shoes, who make handcrafted gifts made from recycled horseshoes. We also spotted Mackreations, a gift shop with a wide array of Scottish gifts.
Food and Booze
Okay so firstly, I didn’t realise quite how many samples would be available. And for this reason, I kind of lost control at the Royal Highland Show. We started our day with fresh coffee from Perc-U-Up, an adorable wee mini coffee van before heading over to the Asda, Tesco, Co-op, Lidl and Aldi stands. And the rest is history. I’m absolutely okay with having strawberries and meringue followed by ice-cream, followed by whisky and then washed down with a scotch egg.
The booze was definitely a-plenty! I tried Glen Moray Fired Oak whisky for the first time and Eden Mill’s Mango and Pineapple Liqueur, which was beautiful.
I even got my hands on tablet-flavoured vodka liqueur by Thistle Independent. WOAH!
Aye 2.0 was the designated driver so he was doing most of the food sampling. This included punchy spiced sauces from Scotia Spice and even punchier chutney from the Snowdonia Cheese Company. I finally got to sample Rora Dairy‘s fresh yoghurts. Rora Dairy is based in Aberdeenshire and I’ve been desperate to try them for ages! I think this would pair perfectly alongside some Ava Strawberries. Or if you’re looking for something even sweeter, perhaps some chocolate and marshmallows from The Chocolate Fondue Company? YUM!
The Fash
When I say fash, what I mean is, FASHION. This is the ultimate place to shop if you’re looking to get “country swish.” Country swish is a term I have created to reflect the kind of glam you can pick up at the Royal Highland Show.
We spotted beautiful tweed equestrian wear at Le Beau Cheval, super bright leather wallets, purses and belts from Birchwood Leather, pretty and minimalistic jewellery by Jan Milne Jewellery and more glitzy-glam jewellery from Celebrity Rocks.
Home from Home
I felt a little like Alice in Wonderland popping in and out of all the different stands. There were so eco-cabins and fancy shacks by Scotia Cabins which would be SO cosy in the Winter, with a wee fire in the middle for roasting marshmallows. And on the other end of the scale, there were rotating orbs by Ornate Garden, perfect for cocktails in the Summer methinks. We even stopped for a homeware break on some (extremely heavy) garden furniture by Charles Taylor Trading. The wine glasses you see were unfortunately empty, although I reckon we would have stayed if they’d encouraged it!
I was gifted some lovely home scents by Valentte; a refreshing lime and grapefruit candle, a lemongrass and rosemary diffuser and some mandarin body scrub which I will be putting together a separate post on (watch this space).
The Royal Highland Show 2019
We had an absolutely fantastic time at this year’s Royal Highland Show! We can’t wait to go back next year with our pooch Callie. I reckon she’d be in her element with all the smells, attention and leftover ice-cream! Fabulous weekend. If you’re looking for info on all this year’s winners, click here.
We attended this years event as press and therefore did not pay entry fees. We even took a second day cause we are just naughty. But as always, all opinions are both our own and smashing.
