Royal Highland unveils new show centrepiece
While visitors are likely to have to wait until the 2020 Royal Highland Show to view the real thing, the lid was lifted this week on plans for the new members’ pavilion at the showground.
In what Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland chief executive Alan Laidlaw termed “a generational investment” marked the society’s commitment to the Ingliston site, the proposed multiuse event space would be built with the aim of yearround utilisation.
Following the demolition of the Macrobert Pavillion in 2016, the replacement marquee accommodation had met with mixed reviews. However, the application for planning permission lodged this week confounded growing speculation that no new permanent structure would be erected.
While no specific figure was put on the multi-million-pound investment, the new 1,100 square metre building will be able to cater for 350 – extended up to more than 500 with a marquee extension.
Mark Currie, the society’s head of operations, said that the new building would be built within the footprint of the Macrobert Pavilion, with the glass frontage and terraced steps with seating facing the main ring. He said the floor of the single-storey building would be raised, offering an exceptional view of the ring through fully glazed walls and for those on the terraced steps.
The society’s commercial director, Lorne Scott, said that the aim would be to provide a high-quality function space which could be used 365 days of the year – and the ability to adapt the flexible internal space would allow it to cater for conferences large and small, as well as other meetings and events such as weddings.
However, at a press meeting Laidlaw said that the new building was not the only infrastructure investment by the show in recent years – with more than £11 million having been spent on 15km of new high and low voltage ring main electric supplies and a refurbishment of the showground’s entire water and drainage systems, along with a considerable upgrade of the broadband and wi-fi system over the past 12 months.
“And while this is undoubtedly a high level of investment, we have to remember that during the week of the show, the showground becomes the country’s seventh largest centre of population,” said Laidlaw.
And for the stockmen involved in the showing of the many breeds of livestock – one of the main draws at what is Scotland’s leading rural event – there was also good news in the form of new toilet and shower facilities for those on the stock-lines.