‘I’ve never seen so many cars’ organisers apologise to those caught up in Glamis Gathering traffic

An amazing turnaround in the weather and the sheer enthusiasm for the free event left many visitors in lengthy queues leading to the Glamis Gathering on Sunday.

An estimated turnout of 23,000 is now thought to be on the low side and, as organisers reflected on the success of the jubilee event, they also apologised to those caught in snarl-ups which led to them arriving late at the gathering, or not getting there at all after losing patience.

The main delays involved the A94 approach from Forfar, with reports of traffic queued to Forfar in the early afternoon and drivers taking two hours to reach the venue.

In contrast, visitors who arrived at the castle from the Kirriemuir area found themselves with a relatively free passage into the grounds.

Castle administrator David Broadfoot said every effort had been made to cope with the massive influx.

”I’ve never seen so many cars and everything that we did, and the police did, we did as best we could,” he said.

”Considering the weather we had in the build-up to the event no one could have guessed we would get the turnout we did.”