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G8-topmøde i Gleneagles:Auchterarder: a G8 summit visitor’s guideCarolyn Tan, 22. juni 2005 How to get there? Where to stay? When to break cover? Whether you are protestor or journalist, tourist or secret policeman going to the G8 summit, Carolyn Tan’s local guide tells you what you need to know about its Scottish location: Auchterarder. The Group of Eight (G8) summit of world leaders will be hosted from 6-8
July at the Gleneagles hotel estate in Perthshire, Scotland. The exclusive
nature of the 850-acre retreat and the intense security
surrounding the event mean that the nearest gathering-point for journalists,
protestors, tourists, and the plain curious is the small town of Auchterarder, a
mile to the north
- an eight-kilometre long, two-metre high steel fence has been built to divide
the masters of the universe and their retinues from the rest. What has this proud, 4,000-strong “royal burgh”, relatively unknown
outside its environs, to offer the G8 circus that is preparing to descend on it?
openDemocracy, armed with inside information from a variety of sources,
some of them Scottish, most of whom prefer to remain anonymous (there go my
chances of a job on Newsweek)
presents an essential guide to Auchterarder. Orientation Auchterarder is in the Strathearn
district of the county of Perthshire, surrounded by the modestly beautiful Ochil
Hills. Its name derives from Gaelic, the ancient language of these parts –
although the last speakers of “Perthshire
Gaelic” died over the last few decades. Uachdar ard dodhar means
“upland of the high stream” (an alternative rendering is “the summit of
the wild”). Much of Auchterarder’s economy was in the past sustained by weaving,
distilling and malting, and is now supported by golfing visitors. The unusually
long, one-and-a-half mile High Street lends Auchterarder the nickname of the Lang
Toon (“long town”). The thoroughfare is a shopper’s
paradise that cannot be missed. Auchterarder people have long memories of earlier flirtations with the
powerful and the zealous. The English king, Edward I (“Hammer of the Scots”),
spent a night at Auchterarder castle during his 1296 invasion of Scotland. In
1843, members of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland here sparked a lengthy,
bitter ideological split in the church – which went down in history as The
Disruption. Getting there & away G8 summits would be boring affairs without the accompanying carnival of
protest. No efforts have been spared to make Auchterarder a convenient
destination for the international array of groups, bands and individuals
expected. Special trains from London to Scotland’s capital city Edinburgh –
whence Auchterarder is a further 40 miles (65 kilometres) north – are being
added to the normal “east coast route” schedule; there are frequent buses
from the south to Edinburgh and Glasgow, from where Auchterarder is also quite
accessible on a good day. The journey from Edinburgh might be a 45-minute cruise by road, if traffic
were smooth (as rare an event as a G8 summit). In any case, Auchterarder has
only one public car park with forty spaces in it. Get the train or bus, bike –
or walk! Information The way to enjoy Auchterarder is not to have it presented on a plate.
Discover it unaided. But if you are there on business – rustling papers,
recruiting members to your political sect, planning world revolution – and you
want instant information or just some friendly advice, you can always head over
to the Auchterarder
Tourist Information Centre, located on the Lang Toon. The Gleneagles complex itself, whose centre is the majestic hotel
built for the Caledonian Railway company during 1913-24, is likely to remain out
of bounds except to vetted, credential-wielding journalists. It is now owned by
the alcohol corporation Diageo
and therefore presents a doubly suitable target for anti-globalisers’ zeal. Essentials Most of the hotels and B&Bs in the vicinity of Auchterarder are already
fully booked, so trying to secure a bed is going to be tough. However, there are
camping grounds available at the Auchterarder caravan park. Dissent!
has organised areas in Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as an enticingly
unspecified “rural outdoor place” near Gleneagles. Indymedia UK advises
visitors to the G8 to be as self-sufficient as possible: it suggests people
bring a tent, sleeping bag, waterproofs, warm clothes, comfortable shoes and
eating utensils. Come prepared, and finding a place to sleep for the night
should not be a problem. If holing up in a tent for the night cramps your style, another option would
be to catch a bus (or hitchhike) to the Auchterarder area, spend the day there,
and return the same way. Sights For those who might come to feel a little constrained by Auchterarder’s
frenetic concentration of urban activity, an absolute must is the Ochil walk
organised by the Radical Ramblers on 6 July. Not only will you able to enjoy the
beautiful, rustic scenery of the Scottish countryside, but you will be able to
participate in a rousing, thoroughly modern, 21st-century G8 protest. The more timid, the less athletic or the hungover can instead join the
anti-G8 protests in Auchterarder itself. An application by G8 Alternatives to
march along the A9
motorway and through the High Street found little favour with the killjoys
of Perth & Kinross Council, but a rally of 4,500 people culminating in
Auchterarder Park has been permitted. Perhaps this will be an opportunity for the last view of many of the Lang
Toon’s local sights. Auchterarder was razed in 1715 during the Jacobite
rebellion against King George I, and some locals profess to fear (and many
more outsiders would like them to fear) that this may be repeated during the
first week of July. There has been talk of boarding up shops and houses before
violent protesters get a chance to lay waste to the tearooms and boutiques that
lie on its idyllic, picture-postcard High Street. All this protesting is bound to be thirsty work, even if the Scottish summer
lives down to its reputation. The Highland
Spring bottling factory in Auchterarder’s sister village of Blackford –
which supplies Gleneagles – is expanding its capacity to meet demand. For
those with more alcoholic tastes, Auchterarder’s four pubs and six hotel bars
have plenty of choice. Sláinte! A word of warning, though: Auchterarder only has one public toilet, so unless
Perth & Kinross Council manages to counter the shortage of portaloos in
Britain … my advice is: cut down your water intake or use your imagination
when you are out. Entertainment Two performances not to miss if protesting duties allow are hosted by the People’s
Golfing Association and the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Army. The PGA plans
to hijack Gleneagles golf course to play a round of golf, and the Clandestine
Insurgent Rebel Army – or possibly one of its disruptive factions, the
Insurgent Rebel Clown Army – will embark on Operation H.A.H.A.H.A.A. (Helping
Authorities House Arrest Half-witted Authoritarian Androids). This strategy was
developed after many hours in the army’s War and Strategic Planning Room. Both events promise huge entertainment value. Take them in from a safe
distance while you sip your Highland Spring, or – if you can’t bear to drink
the same beverage as, say, Paul
Martin – fruit punch. Dangers & annoyances It may seem hard to believe, but not everyone will be in and around
Gleneagles for fun – and even fun things can turn ugly. Recent G8 summits have
been targets for anti-globalisation protesters; a protester was killed in Genoa
in 2001, and 50,000 protesters fought against riot police in Evian
and Geneva in 2003. In light of those events, police leave has been suspended, extra police are
being drafted in, and riot police are expected to be present. Those unfamiliar
with the distinctiveness of Scots
law – where powers of arrest significantly vary from those in operation
south of the border in England – are being trained in its particularities.
Visitors need to be aware that local residents have been issued with ID cards;
without an ID card, gaining access to certain parts of Auchterarder –
especially areas close to Gleneagles – is going to prove tricky.
Meanwhile, for those seeking a McDonald’s or a Starbucks to trash –
better head for Stirling. Auchterarder doesn’t have either. Around Auchterarder There is life beyond Auchterarder, and every visitor needs to be aware of
rival attractions. So here are three suggested day trips to whet the appetite
for the main event. On 2 July in Edinburgh, the LiveAid concert to raise
awareness about Africa will blast across the city. Bands like Travis, Snow
Patrol, and The Corrs will perform.
Auchterarder sounds more attractive by the minute, right? Edinburgh hosts another event on the same day, a huge march to “make
poverty history” – by demanding trade justice, debt cancellation, and
more and better aid for the world’s poorest countries – that will snake
through the city and end with a rally in the city’s vast green park, the
Meadows. On 4 July, two days before the G8 summit starts, there will be a
“peaceful” blockade of the nuclear submarine base at Faslane
on the Firth
of Clyde, northwest of Glasgow. If that does not tickle your fancy, or if you have survived Faslane without
being arrested, you could make a trip to Dungavel
in south Lanarkshire on 5 July, where a protest rally organised by the group Make
Borders History will call for the closure of the Immigration Removal Centre. Auchterarder surprise The poet Robin
Bell cites a local tradition that Auchterarder retains the capacity to come
alive and shake the world once every 100 years. Will the G8 summit be its Brigadoon-like
moment? If it is, the first place to turn is the Strathearn Herald
newspaper, founded in 1856 (“if it’s on, it’s in the Herald!”). But as
Auchterarder looks the world in the eye, openDemocracy will be there too.
Coimeád súil ar an spás seo … watch this space!
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