This article appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.

Clearing out my aunt’s home, I came across an old ‘Farmer’s Diary’ from 1959, kept by my grandmother. A note on Tuesday, June, 23, says, ‘Opening of Royal Highland Show at Aberdeen. Tom at show.’

Tom, my grandfather, had taken the trip up from Unthank Farm in Northumberland, where he lived, to Aberdeen. There's not much detail, as with all entries in this diary, but it’s a reminder that the show, then in its last years rotating sites around Scotland before settling at Ingliston, where it is now, was thought worth the big trip.

The Royal Highland Show entry is just one of many practical notes in the diary. ‘Tom sent pig to Wooler in aid of church fund.’ ‘Went to Kelso show. Scorching afternoon. Grand show.’ ‘Finished combining barley. New combine working champion.' ‘Boar to market.’ ’12 hens to Skelly.’’1 bullock and 20 sheep to market.’ ‘Sportsview starts again.’ ‘Slimmers clinic.’

My dad thinks he probably went to his first Royal Highland Show, when he was four, though it could have been earlier. Decades later, my four brothers and I would also see the trip to Ingliston become a regular feature in our own lives, along with The Royal Show at Stoneleigh, and numerous more local shows.

Whole holidays might be dedicated to a visit. We took a caravan (all seven of us crammed like sheep in a pen) to Stoneleigh, and one year rented a mobile home near Edinburgh for the Royal Highland Show.

The art of scavenging

Sometimes, it could be boring. We would hang out, listlessly, around tractor stands while our dad, suddenly chatty, talked endlessly to sales reps, scrounging sweets, drinks and pens, which we would tuck away into carrier bags full of treasure, or hoping for a sit in........

© Herald Scotland