marthag

I plan to be in Scotland for a big birthday next summer. August 6,2007 is the August Bank Holiday in Scotland. Will museums,castles and other such attractions typically be closed? Do many people get the day off work,leading to resort areas being extra crowded?

I am aware that banks will be open, and instead will be closed on the English bank holiday at the end of August.

Thank you for any insights you can provide me.

Craigellachie

Hi,
National "Bank Holidays" in Scotland usually mena the banks are closed but everything else could be open. We work on a system of local "public holidays". Some of these such as Christmas and New Year are observed across the whole country but others are more localised. I'd be very surprised if major tourist attractions were closed on a public holiday. If you know which particular attractions you want to visit, your best bet would be to e-mail them and ask if they'll be open. Or if you have a particular part of Scotland in mind I can check if they take the August holiday.
Busy times for tourist areas in Scotland depend on holiday periods in Scotland and in England. In early August the schools in both countries are on holiday so this is usually the busiest time of the year for accommodaton and visitor attractions.

marthag

Craigellachie.....thanks so much for your helpful information. I will be touring either the Borders area or the St. Andrews area on next year's August bank holiday. I am particularly interested in visiting castles(Floors,Falkland) and abbey ruins, such as Jedburgh and Kelso. I also would like to visit some of the local villages and their shops.

You have given me encouragement that my destinations may be open, but if you could check with your sources in Fife and in the Borders,that would be great.

janisj

marthag: "if you could check with your sources in Fife and in the Borders . . . "

You can check just as easily as we can. Each place you want to visit has it's own website w/ visitor information, open/closed dates, prices, special events, e-mail address if you want to contact them directly, phone numbers, etc.

Do a quick google search of anyplace you might want to visit and you will find out anything you need.

Also - you are wanting to visit more than a year from now and things might change by then. Wait untill next Spring to look for sepcific info . . . . . .

flanneruk

What Craigellachie didn't make completely clear is that "local" means exactly that. Paisley has quite different holiday dates from Glasgow, for example.

"Fife" or "the borders" are far too vague. Peebles or Hawick may differ from each other. And only you know where you're going. So only you can send the emails.

Barbara_in_FL

Hello Marthaag,

We were in Scotland in May for a "bank holiday" week (which coincided with a school break) and the biggest effect it had on us was that accommodations booked up earlier than I had expected for that particular week, and I had to scramble a bit to get a cottage. We did not have trouble with attractions, etc. being closed. But do check locally. Here are a couple of bookmarks to get you started for the Borders (you will love that area!) --


http://www.scot-borders.co.uk/About/Jedburgh.htm

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...bey/index.html

Craigellachie

Hi again,
I thought my "sources" in Fife would be quite easy as I live here, but as flanneruk pointed out, holidays are much more local than that. I don't think the St Andrews local holidays 2007 have been confirmed yet but they don't change much from year to year. Nowhere in Fife took the August holiday in 2006 so they probably won't take it in 2007. You can see just how local the local holidays are by going to
fifedirect.org.uk
and typing "local holidays" in the search box.
As far as I can tell, nowhere in the Borders has the first Monday in August as a local holiday. Again, the dates for all of 2007 will probably be confirmed towards the end of August 2006. Go to
scotborders.gov.uk
and type "local holidays" in the search box. This will give local holidays, the accent being on the local. The Borders site also shows the two week "trades" or "fair" holidays for each area. Traditionally this was when all the factories, mills etc closed down for two weeks. Nowadays very few places close for the full fortnight but the first Monday of "The Fair" is often a local holiday. If you see references to "common riding" in Borders towns, these are local festivals that are well worth seeing, though accommodation can be hard to find at these times. Some towns also have "civic weeks" which will also offer various local activities if that's what you're interested in.

caroline_edinburgh

As others have said, August 6 is not the August Bank Holiday which is always the last Monday in August and nowadays just means (in Scotland) that the banks are shut - basically it's just because people who work for banks (like me) take English bank holidays.

It's also true that different areas of Scotland have different local holidays - in Edinburgh it's the start of July and in Glasgow it's a couple of weeks later. I don't know of any in August. The schools mostly go back in the middle of August.

The main vistor attractions almost never close - maybe just on Christmas Day. Some rural castles etc close for the winter.

Where did you get this date of August 6 from ?

alanRow

August 6th is a Public holiday in Scotland, just that virtually no-one takes it

http://calendar.scotsman.com/dates.cfm

sheila

Alan, m'dear; ye need specs. That says "Bank" no' "Public".

caroline_edinburgh

How very odd. If even the banks don't take this supposed bank holiday, it seems completely meaningless.

sheila

Q. Why are banks in Scotland not always closed on bank holidays?
A. The Scottish Clearing Banks decided to harmonise the days on which Scottish banks closed with those in England and Wales from Easter 1996 onwards and are closed on Easter Monday, the last Monday in August (rather than the first) and are open for business on 2 January. The banks took the decision to harmonise with England and Wales for business reasons.

alanRow

I bet the SNP foamed at the mouth with that one

sheila

Actually, so did the Bank staff.

caroline_edinburgh

Well I'm quite happy with it (we ended up with 2 days for Easter *and* 2 days for Hogmanay !); but don't understand why a non-existent 'bank holiday' still seems to be recorded on 6th August - or is that just the Hootsmon ?

marthag

I'm the original poster on this question. August 6 is the first Monday in August of 2007, which is my big birthday, hopefully to be celebrated in Scotland.I
was concerned that everything would be closed on that day.

Thanks to all the thorough research and information presented on this thread, I feel confident that I will be able to see the sites and shop in the towns I had planned to visit that day. I'll be in the Borders area, staying in Kelso that night.

Thanks so much to all of you for your help on this matter. It does seem to be confusing, and basically appears to be an unobserved holiday.