The sun was shining, well for the most part, over the four days of the Royal Highland Show (RHS). We had the pleasure of attending and enjoyed everything the show had to offer, from livestock showing to informative talks on moorland habitat, and much more in between.

We popped into the Scottish Land and Estates stand for a catch-up with the team and visited the NatureScot stand to discuss wildlife licensing, which has increasingly come under the spotlight with the Hunting with Dogs Act and the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act licensing schemes being scrutinised. We are still waiting for the licensing review report from NatureScot, which was due to be published earlier this year.

Once again PETA have called for a ban on the livestock parades, which is an integral part of the RHS. Thankfully their protests were in vain once more and all show activities over the four days went ahead as normal.

This is not the first time PETA has attempted to put the brakes on the agricultural highlight of the year in Scotland. In 2023 they called for the livestock parades to be cancelled and even suggested that the name of the iconic show should be changed to the “Royal Highland Grow”!

We bumped into one of our Countryside Alliance Scottish Award winners – Carfrae Farm Shop, who were exhibiting for the first time at the show. They picked up the award for village shop/post office at our annual reception, which took place in March. It was heartening to hear their business has been going from strength to strength since picking up their award and we wish them great success in the future.

Friday ended with a very informative talk by David Jarrett and Katrina Candy from the Heather Trust on changes in the extent of moorland habitat in the UK. The report states that moorland habitat is declining rapidly, equivalent to an area approximately the size of Birmingham being lost every year. Read the full report here.

Despite animal activists attempting to put a dampener on the RHS, it was reported that over 220,000 people attended the 4-day event, with ticket sales up by around 2.5%, suggesting huge public support for our agricultural sector in Scotland. We will seek to ensure that this support carries through to the Scottish Parliament on the run up to a key election year in 2026. We look forward to attending again next year, but in the meantime you can catch our team at the Scottish Game Fair, which takes place at Scone Palace from 4-6 July.