Thousands visited Medieval festival

Aug 21 2008 by George Topp, Lanark & Carluke

LANARK turned back the clock 1800 years at the weekend as thousands of visitors from around the world flocked to Scotland’s National Living History Festival.

The Lanark Medieval Festival, held at Lanark Racecourse, has dramatically increased in size since its first one-day show five years ago.

Today, it is Scotland’s leading history festival and one of the most important in Britain.

Sponsored by the Lanark and Carluke Advertiser, and parent company Scottish and Universal Newspapers, the festival covers a far wider time period, from Romans and Vikings, to medieval, 17th century and Napoleonic eras.

Around 500 specialist re-enactors and heritage traders from 10 countries took part in the weekend’s event, watched by an estimated crowd of 6000.

Mary Boswell, one of the organisers, said: “Despite the weather forecasts saying continually all weekend that we would suffer heavy rain, it was two days of glorious sunshine, and that helped everyone enjoy themselves.

“Through advance ticket sales, or just meeting people at the site, we know there were visitors from Canada, the USA, China, Thailand, Australia, France, and Germany. However, the bulk of the crowd came from the UK, from Aberdeenshire to Lancashire.

“This is all to the good for Lanark since we know that both participants and visitors also spent time, and money, in the town and at New Lanark. The festival was established to try and keep Lanark on the map and help local trade. It seems to be still achieving that aim.”

The show went mainly without a hitch, although the falconers who thrilled the crowds, and especially the children, with their flying displays had to overcome a couple of unexpected hurdles. Firstly, their barn owl flew off, and then a falcon, with both resisting the efforts of their Bristol-based owners to get them to return. Eventually the barn owl was found in bushes near the racecourse site and the falcon was recovered four miles away.

Although the festival started on Saturday, some of the participants took part in a light-hearted Friday morning press and TV event at Lanark Loch, featuring a scale replica of a Viking longship.

Planning for next year began in Easter and visitors in August 2009 will see the types of tartan and clothing Scots wore during the 17th century. It is planned to promote the town through the 2009 Scotland’s Homecoming celebrations.

See the highlights in our video section.