P&J: 3 August 2006
by Unknown - 14:20 on 03 August 2006
OFF THE BEATBY BRYAN BEATTIE
Black Isle Show day! Sunshine (or cut-price umbrellas) guaranteed. We’re in Dumfries and Galloway so unfortunately will miss our regular date at the Mannsfield Showground.
But we had the next best thing yesterday - a visit to the Wigtown Show – enough to get our annual fix of agricultural show.
There’s nothing to compare with the heady mix of tractor oil, candy floss, and manure from a thousand sources – not always animal.
The show ground is a great opportunity to nod knowledgably about the merits of Limousin heifers and look suitably sage when comparing John Deere and Massey Ferguson drive-shafts.
Yesterday I noticed an interesting difference in style between north and south in the livestock competitions. Some of the competitors, particularly cattle and horses, were using what looked like styling gel on their coats, giving them a ruffled, just out-of-bed look.
That may suit these fancy-dan southern beasts but in the north we prefer them scrubbed and brushed – the way nature (and the judges) intended.
This part of the world – the Machars – is very like the Black Isle (with less sunshine of course) and I was impressed with Wigtown itself.
This town of a thousand souls has in the last ten years carved a niche for itself on the tourist trail with an approach it might be worth emulating in the Highlands.
It’s officially styled as Scotland’s Book Town and has attracted almost twenty small bookshops to set up in and around the town centre. Even the bistros, cafes and gift shops sell books.
The numbers visiting the town have increased and the local economy has gone from a series of closed and closing shops to a seemingly buoyant and busy community, particularly during the summer.
On top of this they’re mid-way through an imaginative refurbishment of their county buildings at one end of the town square.
They’ve made them more visitor-friendly rather than a series of offices – we watched a live link to a nearby osprey’s nest with a personal commentary from a local ranger.
There are definitely towns around Inverness that have been looking for ways to reinvigorate their town centres – Dingwall and Nairn spring to mind – that could do worse than look to Wigtown’s approach.
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