ANYONE WHO has an interest in rural countryside life, can’t fail to have June 24-June 27 circled on the calendar. The Royal Highland Show continues to impress across the board – a showcase for some of the world’s best livestock, along with the diverse range of food, drink, and products that highlight just how unique Scotland is.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of activities that are happening over the four days of the show; we hope you find some hidden treasures in this prievew, that you didn’t expect to find at this year’s bigger and better show.

Diggin’ the Highland

Good lifers who want to ‘grow their own’ and those who are serious about saving the planet, will get plenty of tips at this year’s Royal Highland Show.

Show organisers have established a new garden plot which will demonstrate to visitors how they can contribute to biodiversity and sustainability in their own gardens, thereby helping to conserve the natural resources of the planet.

The garden has been planned to mark the International Year of Biodiversity but it will be an evolving project ensuring that each year it continues to be a model of sustainable practice.

It will feature fruit crops and vegetables grown in raised beds with the message that anything picked straight from the garden will help reduce food miles. Composting, wormeries, green roofs and eco-friendly dividing structures will also be featured, including a dry stone wall. An unheated glasshouse will demonstrate how the growing season can be extended.

Gardeners will be encouraged to plant wild flowers and leave small patches of grass to grow longer to attract bees and other insects.

During the show, stone masonry apprentices from St Mary’s Cathedral Workshop in Edinburgh, will demonstrate traditional skills and hand carve a pair of stone pillars which will remain as a permanent attraction.

The overall aim of the garden, which is on a 400 square metre plot in the West end of the showground between the Countryside and Outdoor Living Areas, is to prompt show visitors to implement some of the elements of the layout in their own gardens.

Outdoor living and countryside area

WHAT MAKES Scotland great is our countryside and the show brings together the best of lifestyle pursuits, gardening and handcrafts inspired by our natural resources.

Head to the countryside area (near the west gate) and watch all manners of country persuits being performed by the professionals.

• Fly casting demonstrations

• Gun dog display (see picture)

• Falconry display

• Lurcher display (see picture above)

• Duck herding display

• Search and rescue display

Alongside the countryside arena you will find the rural skills marquee. Aiming to educate the public on traditional crafts and skills it is a hands on area, where questions are welcomed.

This year there is:

• Bagpipe making

• Leather work

• Fly tying

• Sporran making

• Willow work (see picture)

• Artist

• Woodturner

NEW TO THE SHOW - The Clan – a team of daring cycling stunt men. Watch as they perform near-impossible feats of balance … and then have a go if you dare! Check out http://www.mb7.com

The Forestry Arena plays host to the ever popular pole climbing, axe throwing and woodcarving.

Discovery centre - a must for the kids

IF YOU are taking children to the show, there is one place that you must visit. The Children’s Discovery Centre (Avenue Q) at the show is organised and run by RHET, The Royal Highland Education Trust, which is a charity supported by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, which aims to educate children about the countryside and where food comes from.

Take your children to enjoy the hands-on educational activities which are open to the general public throughout the show.

Children can take a turn to grind grain into flour with quern stones, create a wildlife collage and bake bread with a master baker. Watch your child dig for potatoes, then use their ‘tattie’ as a printing block to create a colourful farmyard mural.

Always a show highlight, children (and adults!) can take a turn to milk ‘Mabel’, the life-sized fibreglass cow, to learn the journey of fresh milk ‘from cow to carton’.

The Scottish Government are kindly sponsoring the Children’s Cookery Theatre, giving youngsters a wonderful opportunity for hands-on learning, discovering for themselves just how easy it is to cook with fresh, seasonal produce. Working with food can be a delight for all the young senses – including touch!

Other children’s activities are located throughout the showground and details are available from the Royal Highland Show page of the RHET website www.rhet.org.uk, plus some handy hints for what to see and do when visiting the show with young children.

RHET propagates its message through two core activities – farm visits and classroom speakers. In 2009, RHET took more than 12,000 children out to farms and more than 27,000 children were given a classroom speaker talk. In addition to these core activities, RHET is also involved with a number of local and national projects.

Visiting a farm can be a wonderful learning experience for children and teachers alike, and RHET tailors each visit to the school’s topic needs. Funding for transport costs is available in some instances.

See RHET link at the bottom of the RHS website www.royalhighlandshow.org

Real ale on tap

Let’s face it, you go to the Highland to enjoy yourself, and if ale is your thing, you are in for a treat. Real ale enthusiasts will be in their element as there is a special bar dedicated to 20 beers from some of Scotland’s best independent breweries. But there is, of course, an educational element to the fun.

In a comprehensive ‘field to pint’ display, the beer trail from the farms that grow the barley, through to the maltsters, brewers and retail outlets, will be highlighted.

The man behind the story of beer and who will be running the real ale bar is David Stewart, joint managing director of DM Stewart Ltd which own and operate four of Edinburgh’s best-known licensed establishments.

With the support of SIBA Scotland (Society of Independent Brewers), a new website - DrinkScottishAle.com – is being used to promote individual beers and brewers and to feature bars which specialise in cask (real) ale.

The site will be live at the show in the new bar in the South West area of the showground, so visitors can locate good ale pubs and hotels in their own locality.

The Scottish independent breweries who will be supplying the beers are Atlas, Cairngorm, Fyne, Harviestoun, Highland, Inveralmond, Kelburn, Orkney, Stewart and Strathaven.

The ‘field to pint’ story will embrace GrainCo, the leading farmer-owned grain marketing business and Muntons Malt, one of the UK’s leading maltsters which supplies a number of breweries in Scotland.

“The real ale sector is one of the current success stories for publicans in the on-trade,” said David Stewart. “We hope that visitors to the show will enjoy the choice and quality of Scotland’s ales and on returning home seek out the great bars specialising in these beers.”

Music to your ears!

Fancy a change from the usual bellowing and bleating at the show? Music has become an integral part of the event and this year visitors can listen out for everything from traditional pipes and drums to the rhythms of the Caribbean and West Africa.

At various locations throughout the showground there’s jazz, oompah, drumming, ceilidh, country, folk, brass and no doubt some surprises from the Scottish Association of Young Farmers who will be staging their own homespun version of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. That should be worth a look from previous years performances.

Featuring on all four days are the Ian Muir Ceilidh Band from Ayrshire, North Sea Gas, one of the busiest folk groups in Scotland and Colonel Schnaps Oompah Band with hand clapping, thigh slapping German-style bierkeller music.

At other times throughout the four days the programme also features Celtic Connections Festival band Blue Flint, youngsters from the Edinburgh Gang Show and a community-based drumming group from Fife, Drumatik, which includes people with learning difficulties.

Bringing some exotic sounds are Commotion, the Edinburgh based super samba band, Macumba, Scotland’s leading Afro Caribbean band and Waa Sylla, who play drums and traditional instruments from West Africa.

There are wind bands, brass, jazz, drums and dancers, you can’t fail to find something that you love.

There will be music until ‘close of play’ at 8pm on the first three days of the show, with proceedings closing with the beating of the retreat on Sunday at 6pm in the main ring.