DAYS OOT LISTINGS

wriggling under your bare tootsies. before delicately hoiking it out for your tea. Such is the ancient art of flounder tramping. It had all but died out until. in the best modern tradition. a couple of local likely lads fell to bragging in the pub and the ‘Championships' were born 21 years ago. Now the proceeds go the RNLI and there are big prizes for the biggest fish. which can reach up to a reasonable 31b. £150 goes to the captor of the largest. with special children‘s prizes and a £30 booby prize for the smallest. Weighing in begins at about 8pm. with the prizes being announced at about 8.30pm.

LOTHIANS & FIFE

I ABEROOOR FESTIVAL Sat 31—Sat 7. Various venues around Aberdour. Programme from 0383 860153. See photo caption. I BEEKEEPINC ANO HONEY DEMONSTRATION Almondvale. Sat 3 l/Sun l. 10am—5pm. Almond Valley Heritage Centre. Livingston Mill. 0506 414957. SMT bus 27 from the centre of Edinburgh. Always good for a family day out. the Heritage Centre's special events programme extends the range of local industries to beekeeping for the weekend. with a demonstration hive. honey extraction and the opportunity to taste all sorts of honey-based foods. including mead. Yum Yum! Sunday 15 August is Family Fun Day. with more special events including the one-and-only Pantomime Horse Trials in the main ring. Local organisations compete in the trials. donning horse costumes and doing all sorts of demeaning things in front of thousands of people. Exploding palmtrees and a bevy of secret surprises have been prepared for this year‘s event. Outside the ring. magicians. side-shows. welly boot throwing competitions and stalls add to the usual attractions on this l6-acre site which ‘brings West Lothian‘s past to life'. Standard attractions include horse-drawn cart rides around the outlying fields. a nature trail to ramble round. swing park and playground to dump the wee ones. while you sample the delights of the home cooking at the Farmhouse Kitchen Cafe (get those doughnuts). Even if it starts raining. there's still the mill. byres and museum building to explore. I FRIENDS OF THOMAS THE TANK EKINE WEEKEND Bo'ness. Sat 14/Sun 15. 11am—5pm. Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway. Bo‘ness Station. £4 (£2). See photo caption. I FRINGE SIINOAY Edinburgh. Sun 22. l—5pm. Holyrood Park at the foot of the

Royal Mile. Edinburgh. Free. Bring your friends. but leave the car at home. All the fun of the Fringe, but you don’t have to pay a penny! Yup. all that’s fit to show the family will be on display in Holyrood Park. with snippets from the serious to the sublime. Eggopolis. a massive sound and colour vision experience (although this is one you'll have to pay for). and the Inflatable Dragon (which has never been near Jurassic Park) will be making a return journey to Edinburgh to wander round the expected 150.000 crowds. There will be tents for music. comedy. cabaret and craft exhibitions. a big-big game of celebrity footballers. a music stage. a busking arena for you to practise your heckling skills and a dance square. World cuisine will be represented by the Bangladesh festival of food and culture. The kids can get high with the kite flyers. you can throw haggis and quoits competitively or pay a coin to charity and join the massive conga. And if you still can‘t make up your mind what to see on the Fringe. you’ll just have to have a look through the Festival issues of The List.

I LAMMAS FAIR AND MARKET St Andrews. Mon 9/1‘ ue 10. 9am-11pm. Market Street. St Andrews. Free. No parking in St Andrews. but free car park at West Sands. with free shuttle bus service to the centre of town (11am—11pm). Major fair and market which has survived since at least the sixteen hundreds when it was granted a charter by King James. Then it was a ‘feeing' market where workers would go to change their employer. Now it is a major excuse for the best showpeople to descend on Fife with their fairground equipment. and for all sorts of traders to tout their wares.

I MARY OOEEN OF SCOTS CELEBRATION Linlithgow. Sats 7. 14. 21. 7.30pm. Linlithgow Palace. Linlithgow. Tickets £7.50 from 0506 844600. Mary was born at Linlithgow Palace in 1542 and although in her later years she mainly used it as a B&B stopover on her way between Edinburgh and Stirling. she is reputed to have loved her ‘palace of pleasaunce’. This celebration combines a Son et Lumiere history of the Palace with a medieval banquet. Food and drink is provided as the audience follows round the rooms of the Palace where tableaux. plays. music and dance will tell Mary’s story from her birth. through her time at the French Court to her all too brief reign upon the Scottish throne and final execution. If the celebrations are sold out. then there are also playlets in the palace

THE CLAN OO BATTLE Ardersier. Sat 7, 2.3M, SW B, 2.3%. Fort

George, Ardersier, between lnverness and llairn. Free with admission to Fort George: £2.30 (£1 .20). Fort open 9.30am—5.30pm (Sun 24.30pm). The Clan are Scotland’s top Jacobite lighting display team, which is rather ironic, as Fort George was built to put down the Jacobite rebellion and is thought to be one of the finest late artillery fortifications in Europe by those who know about such things. The Clan will be going through their paces, demonstrating the niceties oi haed-to-haed combat with period weaponry, explaining how the weapons were made and showing how the lethal Instruments were best used. They will also demonstrate putting on the plaid, the traditional Highland dress.

SEATING TIIE RETREAT Stirling. Sun 15, 9pm. Stirling Castle Esplanade. £5

HISTORIC SCOTLAND

(£3.50) seated. £1 standing. Tickets from Stirling Tourist lnlonnation Centre, 0186 475019. The pinnacle of the summer’s tourist events at Stirling Castle, the Beating oi the Retreat is like a ‘mini tattoo’, with hall-a-dozen pipe bands giving their all on the esplanade for an hour followed by a fifteen-minute ilreworks display. You’ll definitely need your ticket for the ionner, although the latter is likely to be visible from a little further afield. All sorts of bizarre ‘living history’ events take place every day in Stirling over the summer, from Tolbooth Trials (Tue-Sat, H.30pm. £1 .50/£1) where you join the ravening mob at a 16th century trial to the penny weddings (Tue—Sat, 2—2.30pm. £1 .50/£1) where you are invited to celebrate as a couple of the town’s characters plight their troth. The Castle itself is open every day from 9.30am-5.15pm: £2.50 (£1.30).

courtyard every Sunday afternoon in August. These feature Mary's confrontations with her nobles and with the ‘thundering voice of Scottish puritanism in the person ofJohn Knox‘. The plays start at 2.15pm and 3.15pm and are free with admission to the Palace: £1.70 (90p) open 9.30am—6.30pm (Sunday 2.30—6.30pm).

THE NORTH

I THE CLAN OO BATTLE Ardersier. Sat 7. 2.30pm. 3.30pm/Sun 8. 2.30pm. Fort George. Ardersier. between Invemess and Nairn. Free with admission to Fort George: £2.30 (£1.20). Fort open 9.30am—6.30pm (Sun 2—6.30pm). See photo caption.

STRATHCLYDE

I CARIBBEAN STEEL BAND FESTIVAL Glasgow. Sun 1. 1—5pm. Kelvingrove Park. Glasgow. Free. Arts development: 041 227 5850. The kids of Easterhouse will have been Spending the week making costumes for the festival with top Mas dancer and costume maker Rocky Byron to add some local colour to this day out which promises wild dancing and throbbing beats. Three steelbands will be taking part: joining the Glasgow 1990 Steelband will be top London outfits Pan Tonic and the London All Stars. Special guests are Da-Da-Dang. a fifteen-piece percussion group from Italy who are currently on a European tour. The event kicks off at 1pm with a parade featuring Mas dancers in full costume. Ifyou fancy your chances in a brightly coloured outfit. then make sure you enter the Caribbean Fancy Dress Competition. I CLASSIC VEHICLE SHOW Culzean. Sun 1. 10am—5pm. Culzean Castle. 12 miles south of Ayr on the A719. Cars: £9. Motorbikes £3. 06556 274. See photo caption. I FOREST FESTIVAL Glenbranter. Sat 7. 10am—5pm. Argyll Forest Park. Glenbranter. 3 miles south of Strachur on the A815. Free. carpark £1. 0369 84666. Get that chainsaw out for a day in the forest with the Forest Enterprise. There‘ll be chainsaw sculptors and the 3rd Argyll Forest Park Crosscutting competition. orienteering. an assault course and the even tougher wonders of forest weeding! Plenty of demonstrations of the various woodland arts should keep you entertained, from tree surgery. charcoal burning and fire-fighting to comparisons between the use of horses and mechanical means for extracting timber. If you still want to know more. buy something on the publication stall. and if you're bored. well just hire a mountain bike and glide off alon those forest paths. I FAIR Coatbridge. Sat 2l/Sun 22.

lOam—Spm. Summerlee Heritage Trust. West Canal Street. Coatbridge. Free. 0236 431261. Traction engines and ancient steam engines will spew soot and billow smoke into the air over Summerlee. A reminder that older is not always more ecologically sound perhaps. but also an interesting addition to what is already a pretty massive day out. The Summerlee site is contained in 20 acres. displays which illustrate the last two centuries of Scottish industry and the lives of working people. Joining Scotland‘s only working tram line and the other working exhibits. will be a mixture of entertainment for the kids while you wander round getting soot in your eyes: Stupot the Magician. traditional games. Sparkle the Clown and a bouncy castle. When it all gets too much. wander over to the tearoom. The List has yet to receive a first-hand account of the Summerlee tearoom. so if you do visit please drop us a line with your comments.

I SURF CHAMPIONSHIP Machrihanish. Sat 2l/Sun 22. Machrihanish beach. either the south or the north end. depending on the wind and state of the tides. West of Campbeltown. Mull of Kintyre. Phone John Inglis on 0880 820255 for details. The participants in this kayak event will be looking for a good mid-Atlantic storm during the previous week. with a gentle on-shore wind. The Atlantic swell comes piling into Machrihanish clear all the way from America. Saturday is a fairly free and easy practice day. with the serious competition being left over to Sunday. Competitors from all over Scotland and even further afield are expected. with their kayaks and wave skis.

I VIKING BATTLE RE-ENACTMENT Holy Loch. Wed 4. 4pm—late. Holy Loch Farm Park. 4 miles from Dunoon (2 miles from the Western Ferry Terminal). £3. 0369 6429. The Danish Vikings and the Glasgow Vikings will be vying with each other to provide the best entertainment in these set-piece re-enactments of the 13th century Viking invasion. The plunder and pillage should be over by 5pm and from then on. there’s some serious dancing. singing. eating and drinking to be done. The whole evening is part of the Cowal Europe ‘93 event, which sees 700 delegates from nine EC countries visiting the Dunoon and Cowal area.

I WORLD PIPE BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS Glasgow. Sat 14. 10am—6.30pm. Bellahouston Park. 041 221 5414. £2.50. Almost 200 pipe bands will be taking part in the world championships. so ifyou're going down to the park today. you had better have your ear-plugs! Entries have been received from all over the UK with around twenty from other countries. Some 60 drum majors will also be doing their own thing: with marks for deportment. marching and dress. There will also be heavy events.

58 The List 30 July—12 August 1993