Posts for July, 2025

The 2025 theme is: Highland Games

Categories:

Cut Flowers: From your garden or picked while out walking. Any size,
Colour, or variety. Display in a vessel of your choice (vases, teapots, baskets,
jars, milk bottles etc).

Floral Art Displays: Express your artistic vision by creating a floral
masterpiece that represents the Highland Games.

Plants in Pots/Planters/Hanging Baskets: Pot plants, planters or hanging
baskets.

Fruit & Vegetables: Show off your home-grown delights, perfect or wonky.
Any variety, large or small, in baskets, boxes, or on their own. just ensure
they are home-grown and clean.

Crafts (Needlework and Handiwork): Anything you have created, or made
jointly as a group. Knitting, crochet, paintings, models, painted stones etc.

Home Produce: Jams, chutneys, wine, honey, home bakes. Anything
homemade. Produce will be judged at the start of the festival.

Children’s Competition: Let your creativity bloom! Create and submit your
own model inspired by the Highland Games.

These categories will be judged by the public (excluding Home Produce which will be judged by nominated individual). The winner of each category will receive a £20 cash prize.

Special features:

Floral Art Group Display: stunning Highland Games showcase exhibited down the middle of the hall.
Children’s Craft Groups: Held during the holidays to encourage children’s participation.

Photographic Slideshow: showcasing photos of the local area based on our festival theme you would
If you would like to participate, please send your photos to ballaterhorticulturalsoc@outlook.com. Selected photos will be featured in a slideshow that will be displayed throughout the festival weekend.

Open to Everyone!

Free entry in as many categories as you wish.

Fun for all ages.

For more details and to contact us􀀏 visit our Facebook page
Facebook.com/ballaterroyalhorticulturalsociety

Exhibits can be dropped off at the Victoria Hall on
Friday August 15th from 5-8pm and Saturday 16th from 8-9:30am

Sunday 17th: Voting closes 2 PM, Winners announced 3 PM, Raffle drawn 3:30 PM
We look forward to seeing you this summer at the Victoria Hall.

Join us for the fun of it!

Please come and join the Clan Macpherson Association’s talk in the Ballroom at the Duke of Gordon hotel at 13.30 on Friday 1 August by Dr Jim and Mairi Macpherson about James Macpherson (1736-96) – The Historian
Hear how James Macpherson, world-famous for translating and editing the tales of Ossian, was also an historian and a key figure of the Enlightenment

For organisers:
Set-up from 10:30am
Donations to Castle Roy suggested £5

Join Us for our Annual Christmas Market!

Get ready to soak up the festive spirit at our cozy Christmas Market!
Stroll through charming stalls filled with handmade gifts, seasonal treats, hot drinks, and holiday cheer.

Perfect for families, friends, and anyone who loves the magic of the festive season.
📅 5th December 2025
📍 Boat of Garten Community Hall
⌚ 4pm-7pm
🎁 Free entry | Local Artisans | Food & Drink

Bring your holiday spirit and shop local this season – See you there! 🎅🤶🛍️

If you have products you would like to sell at our market, do get in touch – info@boathall.org.uk / 01479 831123

The Big Bike Film Night is back in Boat of Garten on its mission – bringing the best short cycling films from around the world together for you.

Showcasing 2.5 hours of riveting bike films that have everything a cycle-centric audience could want – action, drama, humour, and plenty of inspiration. The evening is unashamedly and utterly, utterly, utterly designed and devised to delight the two-wheel devotee!

The 2025 treasure chest of films includes:
• an exhilarating film that redefines what’s possible on a gravel bike on technically challenging terrains
• a celebration of grit, camaraderie, and the beauty of “Type 2 Fun”, this film is an ode to the ride, not the finish line
• a captivating film that promises to take you on a journey of compassion, community, and the joy of cycling
• an uplifting film that follows a group of adventurers who gather to cycle from town out to the local Ski Field and back, carrying all their gear, with the purpose to raise awareness about the climate impact that comes with travelling and adventuring
• an inspiring mountain bike ride through back country Queenstown, New Zealand that is both poetic and meaningful
• a life-changing experience for a group of friends who undertake a trip to a bothie in the Scottish Highlands to show what can be achieved by people with disabilities in relation to having adventures
• a film, set in Pakistan, that celebrates the art of “winging it” and how travelling by bicycle and the power of exploration can obliterate preconceptions and contribute to understanding others
• and a classic Kiwi story of a young trail blazer participating in a gruelling six-day mountain bike rally, exploring his boundaries with his own signature entirely unsupported style – fueled by a penchant for chocolate milk and a single-minded approach to making it happen ALL in the mix!

These short films are a great reminder of why we love to ride our bike; with stories that captivate us, stories that move us, and most importantly of all – inspiring us to get out and ride. All celebrate the fun, adventure, and joy that cycling enables.
So…listen to the voice inside you; it’s telling you to go. Grab your mates, GO ON… grab your bike and come along for the ride!!

PREVIOUS ATTENDEE’S COMMENTS:
“One of the most inspiring events of the year”
“The Big Bike Film Night is always a wonderful, eclectic, wacky mix of films and I love it!”
“If you haven’t experienced the cinematic excellence of The Big Bike Film Night – then YOU MUST!!!”

Doors and Bar open from 6.15pm, Film starts at 7pm.
Licenced bar | cash/card sales

The Senior Fèis Spè Band “Monadh Ruadh” will be playing for you today. Monadh Ruadh is the original Gaelic name for Cairngorm, and means “The Red Mountain”. The band are playing at differnet local venues as well as an annual visit to Logie Steading, near Forres. We hope you enjoy the music! The band will be delighted to accept any donations to help towards the costs of running the band and Fèis Spè’s many activities throughout the year.
Fèis is a Gaelic word which means festival and has come to mean a community-run cultural and tuition festival for children and young people. Since 1991, that has been the role of Fèis Spe in the community of Badenoch and Strathspey, offering children and young people here access to tuition in Traditional Music and Gaelic with opportunities to play and perform.
This is Monadh Ruadh’s annual Summer Tour in Badenoch and Strathspey, come for a listen.
All events are free or by donation.

Our regular stallholders will be there to tell us about what they are doing to push the transition to a sustainable future, and to inspire us to join them in taking action. They are too many to name individually, but include representatives from the building industry, home energy advisors, wind farm developers, wildlife champions, experts in waste management and the circular economy, active travel and local farmers and food experts. It will again be a great family day out, and there will be something of interest whatever your stage of life – wooden toys and creative child’s play, help with keeping your home energy costs down, right through to willow coffins and natural burial. As well as our range of stalls, we will again have a programme of ‘Tent Talks’ running throughout the Show. This year we are asking our stallholders to feature the number 5: five sustainability achievements, pledges, priorities or future goals, or their 5-year sustainability plan. Maybe you too will be inspired to think of 5 things that you can do!

A special Cairngorm Community Cinema screening to celebrate Wes Anderson – we will be showing the 2012 classic, “Moonrise Kingdom” with special guests (more to come).

The coming-of-age comedy-drama film follows two 12-year-olds who live on an island as they fall in love with each other and elope into the wilderness. While people set out on a search mission, a violent storm approaching them catches their attention.

Doors at 6.30pm, film start 7pm.
Run length 1hr30min.

Community-owned but operated in partnership with Spey Valley Cinema and supported by the BFI and Film Hub Scotland, Cairngorm Community Cinema aims to create a space where the community can gather, discover new perspectives, and enjoy film.

At just £5 a ticket, we’re making it accessible to all.
Tickets only available on the door, so just show up!

Please come once again support our community cinema to keep it running for the rest of the year.

Cairngorm Community Cinema is excited to present “Tornado” as our June screening.

A 2025 British period action drama film written and directed by John Maclean, filmed in Scotland. Staring Kōki, Jack Lowden, Takehiro Hira and Tim Roth. When her father’s puppet samurai show gets ambushed by a notorious gang, Tornado vows to seek vengeance and forge her own destiny by stealing their ill-gotten gold.

Doors at 6.30pm, film start 6.40pm.
Run length 1hr30min.

Community-owned but operated in partnership with Spey Valley Cinema and supported by the BFI and Film Hub Scotland, Cairngorm Community Cinema aims to create a space where the community can gather, discover new perspectives, and enjoy film.

At just £5 a ticket, we’re making it accessible to all.
Tickets only available on the door, so just show up!

Please come once again support our community cinema to keep it running for the rest of the year.

The Braemar Folk Festival returns for it’s fifth year with an absolutely stellar line up of artists performing evening concerts in the stunning atmosphere of St Margaret’s Braemar as well as fringe events in various cosy venues around the village from foot stomping sessions to instrumental workshops.

Further details and the line up will be posted in due course. Keep an eye on the website!