Exercise Highland Fling
Easter 1978
Glen Tilt - Scottish Highlands

What fun it would be (your author thought) to have a jolly march along the old route of the highland walks of The London Scottish of yesteryear.

Well, after what seemed a disproportionate number of nauseas, organising warrants, rations, rucksacks, survival bags, clearances, guides and the other seven million things that the authorities require before setting out on such a perilous expedition, we arrived one fair Saturday morning in Blair Atholl raring to start on a march up Glen Tilt to Braemar. With our moccasin guide, Tonto (in the guise of that maestro of the squeeze box Captain John Kiszely, Scots Guards), we set off at a cracking pace to reach Lin of Dec.

Fortified by a draught of Champagne (only the Spanish kind I fear) from the kind offices of Lt Willie Crowe, we seemed by the Falls of Tarf to be making an easy time of it. Spirits were so high by lunchtime that a certain aforementioned Lieutenant and benefactor went over the top and had to have corrective treatment in the form of de-kilting, much to the enjoyment of all the foregathered, bar one.

However, in the afternoon the snowstorms set in and the author at least was mightily relieved to reach Lin of Dec in one piece.

From that moment on we were under the kind suzerainty of the Gordon Coy of 2/51 Highland Volunteers who have strong links with The London Scottish, notably that they are the only other TA Gordon Coy with the same role as ourselves, that they now have Sgt-Major John Carter as their SPSI and they have Captain Andrew Nicol, who also recently adorned 59, as the Coy 2 i /c.

Under their instructions we all repaired to the Mar Lodge Hotel where, after a little initial lubrication, the London Scots and the moccasin guide got going on a tremendous Ceidleigh with the pipes, the accordion and the assembled voices of the whole bar, which must have numbered over 500.

On the Sunday morning a visit was organised to the Gordon Museum in Aberdeen which was extremely interesting and very kind of the director to open it up to us on Easter Sunday morning - it was noticed that among the plaques of Regiments, The London Scottish was absent-this notable flaw has luckily since been rectified by a rapid parcel from 59.

The weekend was now officially over - but the hard core elected to stay behind over Easter Monday and enjoy the delights of Aberdeen. I don't think anyone was disappointed from what they remember, which by all outward signs was unlikely to be much.

Not the least important aspect of the weekend was to re-establish links with D Gordon Coy 2/51 and it is to be hoped, subject to the final approval of the two Coy Commanders, that some sort of annual gathering, either in Aberdeen or London, can be made on a permanent basis.