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Stonehaven Harbour Festival 2006

Stonehaven Harbour Festival 2004

The Vikings came to this year’s Harbour Festival on Sunday 23 July. They travelled down from Shetland with all their special costumes to Vikings add colour and spectacle to the day. Many thanks to the families who volunteered to ‘Adopt a Viking’ for the weekend.

The planning for the Festival all paid off. A newcomer to the Festival was Don Grant, a master barrel maker; Cooper at work he demonstrated his craft and threw down a challenge to those who think it’s easy to raise a barrel.

Also new were visits by two very different boats. The ‘White Wing’ sailed up from the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther. She’s a 32’ Scottish ‘baldie’ from around 1910, manned by a very knowledgeable crew, who were happy to answer questions. On a completely different timescale was a replica Bronze Age boat. Built after meticulous research at Archeolink near Oyne, she represents high tech from 3,000 years ago. Her keeper in his Bronze Age costume, added even more colour to the day. As if that wasn’t enough, we were also really pleased Life sized model of blue whale to have a life sized model of a blue whale, courtesy of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society based at the mouth of the River Spey. We measured the pier, before decidiing it will fit!

With so many grown up people getting dressed up, we thought it only fair to give the youngsters a chance, so we held our first fancy dress competition. A prize was givien to the best costume in nautical theme.

And there was still more! MRI launched its new celebrity seafood cookery book, as well as the Rory and Ropey packs. Rory and Ropey are our safety characters who help make children more aware of looking after themselves on the coastline. The cookery book contains recipes from such illustrious chefs as Anthony Worral Thompson, Keith Floyd and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, alongside contributions from local schools.

Keeping on the food theme, Ian Spinks filled the harbour with the delicious aroma of smoking fish, competing with the burgers on the corner and teas in the workshop.

Long standing favourites were back again – the Newfoundland dogs and the Trossachs Search and Rescue dogs are always a hit. Stalls stretched all around the outer harbour with a wide range of goods on offer – fresh fruit and vegetables to original art work. Jan Clizer, an internationally renowned artist, had her paintings for sale. See her work at www.janclizerpaintings.com.

Rory and Ropey Add in the Pipe Band, music, demonstrations, bouncy castle and children’s rides and there was every opportunity for a great day out.