Opinion: Royal Highland Show’s ‘Long Sunday’ proves a real test of your resolve

There is a school of thought that claims Saturday 21 June was the longest day of the year in 2014.

These number-crunchers believe the summer solstice always occurs in the northern hemisphere sometime between 20 June and 22 June. Their claims are loosely based around the shift of the Gregorian calendar and the tilt of the Earth’s axis. They use very complex equations and claim they can predict the longest day of the year, every year, extending far into the future. For example, the next time they claim the longest day will occur on the 22 June will be 2203.

That’s all very well if you have Druid tendencies and you believe in that kind of mumbo-jumbo, but a few of us in the livestock business can be a bit more precise than that. Anyone who shows livestock at the Royal Highland Show will be able to confirm that the Sunday of the show is always the longest day of the year, no matter what the date is.

At the end of a very arduous week, both physically and mentally, the “Long Sunday” is a real test of your resolve to return the following year.

We use extremely sensitive instruments like the soles of our feet and precise indicators such as the colour of our urine to confirm the longest day every year. Really sore feet and excruciating pain in the legs and lower back is the first sign that it’s Sunday at the Highland. Four days standing on concrete and tarmac wearing inappropriate footwear has this effect on people who use a Honda far more than their legs.

A quick glance down when you visit the loo on the Sunday morning and the careful use of a Dulux colour chart will also confirm that Long Sunday has begun. When the shade of your output has changed from the light, golden shade of “desert sunrise” from the classic range and now resembles the much darker “autumn gold” from the industrial collection, then the longest day of the year has definitely started.

In amongst all this merriment and mayhem, there is at least some serious fact-finding research going on. While chatting with old friend over a cheeky wee Irn-Bru on the Sunday morning, she could tell me, quite categorically, that claims made by cattle men that they are always up and about every morning by 5am were quite untrue.

She had gone deep under cover on the Saturday night and had infiltrated a kist party that was going on down in the cattle lines. Later on, unnoticed by anyone, she had hidden away in the ladies and waited out the long night before emerging at 5am. She discovered that, apart from a man whistling Dąbrowski’s Mazurka with a litter-picker in one hand and a binbag in the other, there was no other sign of human life in the main cattle hall.

Next year the number-crunchers may have got it right. They claim the longest day in 2015 is going to be 21 June and it is a Sunday. I haven’t had it confirmed but I think it’s more than likely to be the week of the Royal Highland Show.

With the tilt of the Earth, the day of the week and the Royal Highland Show all aligned, 2015 should be a great year for Long Sunday. I’m looking forward to being in Ingliston on that day.

However, if the price of beef keeps falling the way it is at the moment, I could end up being the man going round with a litter picker and bin bag.

Neale McQuistin is an upland beef and sheep farmer in south-west Scotland. He farms 365ha in partnership with his wife, Janet, much of which is under stewardship for wildlife.

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