We set off very early in the morning but decided not to park in Edinburgh and instead opted for the Park and Ride at Ingliston and what a great decision!! Before I tell you about the gathering let me tell you about Park and Ride, £3 return into the city and you can leave your car there for free, I will never park in the city again!!

Anyway, the Gathering, to start off with we spent a bit of time on the Royal Mile which was quite good fun as there was a lot going on all over the place and as it turned out that was the best part of the day.

On reaching the bottom of the Mile we joined the queue to get in and at £15 I thought it was rather expensive, If it was cheaper or free it might have encouraged the curious who have never been to an event like this to come along and sample what was on offer, if you and your wife brought two kids along it was costing you £50, a very expensive day out before you've even started!!

Once we got in we had a wee walk round to see what was on offer and I have to admit I wasn't impressed, don't get me wrong I know there were thousands of people who went to this event and probably had a great time, I didn't, end of!

The Clan Tented Village for example, surely if your name was MacDonald wouldn't you only be interested in one tent in particular? Most of them had very little going on in them and I thought that was an opportunity lost.

We managed to find one marquee that had shops etc which although the goods on offer were of the highest standard so was the price!! I'd like to have seen craftsmen displaying their wares and showing us how they made them, leather, weaving, kilt making etc. Weapon displays would have been good, people in period costume, history displays and something for the kids to do!! Rock climbing and story telling was that it? I did get told that their was a kids zone but I never saw it. One thing that the organisers definitely got right was the music, the bands on show were first class.

Overall I was disappointed and thought the event smacked of elitism, hopefully the next one will be so much better as I know I wasn't the only person to be unhappy at what was on offer, who knows maybe they'll ask us the public what we want on show!!