Only seven British Eventing (BE) fixtures will take place in Scotland this year, following the announcement that Glamis Castle will not run.
Glamis Country Fair and Horse Trials had been scheduled to run 5-6 August, but the organising team announced today (30 March) that it had been “deeply disappointed to take the difficult decision” to cancel.
“Following the huge success of Glamis in 2022, unfortunately the hard reality of running a greenfield site with limited ability to offset rising costs and the uncertainty of major sponsorship – combined with the need to attract large footfall in these uncertain economic times – has led us to the hard decision to not run Glamis this year,” said organiser James Helyer.
“The Glamis estate has been very supportive of our decision, which has not been taken lightly together with the impact this will have on Scottish eventing, and we are working with Glamis to look at future options. The organisers would like to thank all those who supported Glamis in 2019 and 2022.”
Glamis had been due to host a BE regional championship, but this will now take place at Hopetoun (2) in West Lothian, from 12-13 August.
“We are sorry to hear that Glamis is no longer running this year, but are happy to be adding the regional championship to Hopetoun (2) in August,” said Douglas Edward of Kick on Events, which runs Hopetoun.
The news of Glamis’ cancellation will be a blow for Scottish eventers, with the already limited calendar reduced to just seven fixtures; Kirriemuir (9 April), Forgandenny (1) (22-23 April), Floors Castle International (11-14 May), Hopetoun (1) (10-11 June), Forgandenny (2) (15-16 August), Hopetoun (2) (12-13 August), and Blair Castle International (24-27 August).
The eventing calendar in Scotland has continued to decline over recent years. Last year the Lochore family’s Burgie Horse Trials called time after 45 years. Since 2018 Scotland has also lost Hendersyde, Aswanley, Scotsburn and Eglinton.
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The venues had fixtures on the BE calendar for 19 and 15 years respectively.
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