Regular visitors to the Caithness and Sutherland agricultural shows will have to choose between them this summer as they go ahead on the same day.
A quirk of the calendar means the two majors in the far north show circuit coincide every four or five years. The Caithness Show is scheduled for Thurso East on July 21, the date the Sutherland Show is being staged on Dornoch Links.
Marie Hay, secretary of Sutherland Show, yesterday said: “Neither of us plans to clash. It’s to do with the number of Saturdays in July and we also have to schedule our event so it does not clash with the Nairn Show.”
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She did not think the two far north shows going ahead on the same day would unduly hit either.
Ms Hay said: “We have a very loyal support, as has Caithness.
“I have noticed that there has been a drop in the entry and we are missing a number from Caithness that we would normally get.
“It is a nonsense that there is a clash but sadly we’re stuck with the date that we have to go with.”
She said the overall entry is up for the Dornoch show, which will for the first time stage the North of Scotland Shetland Sheep competition.
Former Caithness Agricultural Society president Jim MacMillan said the issue goes back to the shift of the Caithness Show to a Saturday.
He said: “Caithness traditionally was a midweek event and only changed to a weekend about 20 years ago. Since then, it has gone ahead on the third Saturday in July.”
He believed the clash would have a minimal effect on the entry with a small decline in some sections, notably horses and hill sheep. I don’t see it really affecting the attendance.”