Overview of Royal Highland Centre

The Royal Highland Centre is Scotland's largest exhibition venue and showground. Located 8 miles (13 km) west of Edinburgh, it hosts everything from trade exhibitions to rock concerts. Owned by the Royal Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, which was founded in 1784 and is headquartered at Ingliston House within the Centre, it is the venue for a number of large events throughout the year, including the annual Royal Highland Show. This show is held towards the end of June and acts as a shop-window for Scottish agricultural production and machinery, crafts, a flower show and the largest exhibition of Scottish food and drink in the world.

Ingliston Estate was acquired by the Society in 1958, as a permanent venue for the Highland Show, which had previously rotated between various towns and cities around the country. The Estate consisted of two farms together with Ingliston House (built in 1844). Subsequent development has given rise to a number of permanent exhibition halls, a golf centre and, for a time, Scotland's only motor-racing circuit, which opened in 1965 and was operational until 1992. Parts of the estate are used as agricultural test plots.

The Royal Highland Centre also provides a home for the 'Cars of the Stars' Motor Museum, a hotel, offices of various agricultural charities, and parts are rented to various other business activities, for example a motor auction company.