Colm’s Day fair at Largs

24 June · Largs, Ayrshire

No longer kept

Every Midsummer Largs held a fair called St Colm’s Day, where Highlanders and Lowlanders met to trade for the whole year. Boats came in from all quarters, there was music and dancing on the green day and night, and a street of merchants’ stands sprang up for several days. The minister of Largs called it a congress between the Highlands and Lowlands.

There is a fair, annually held at Largs, every Midsummer. It is called St Cosme or Come's day.

From Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. 2, p. 365. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

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The cuckoo silent after Midsummer Day Lore and belief Flintshire, MontgomeryshireIn Montgomeryshire, on the Shropshire border, it was held that the cuckoo never sang after Midsummer Day, and a rhyme said she sang in April, May and Midsummer, but never on that day.
St John’s worts on the rafters Lore and belief WalesAs late as the middle of the nineteenth century Welsh households foretold who would die first by hanging St John's worts from the rafters, one named for each person in the house.
A quarter-pound of pepper for Waterton Farm No longer kept GlamorganWaterton Farm near Coity, Bridgend, was held by an odd tenure: suit of court and a quarter of a pound of pepper paid to the lord of the manor.
The Dutton minstrels’ court at Chester Midsummer Fair No longer kept CheshireEvery Midsummer all the minstrels and musicians of Cheshire had to attend their lord at Chester, play before him in procession to St John's church, and then answer at his court for their lives and conduct.
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A coal under the plantain root Lore and belief LondonAt noon on Midsummer Day 1694 Aubrey came upon twenty-two or twenty-three young women, most of them well dressed, on their knees in the pasture behind Montague House as if they were weeding.
A red rose for Highhead at Midsummer No longer kept CumberlandIn the reign of Edward III Highhead Castle, near Dalston, was held by the service of bringing a red rose to the king's exchequer in Carlisle every year on the feast of St John the Baptist.
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A chaplet of roses at Tong No longer kept ShropshireEvery year a garland of flowers was placed on the effigy of a Vernon in Tong church.
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Crowning the tin-mine poles No longer kept CornwallIn Cornwall the boundary of each tin mine was marked by a long pole with a bush at the top.
Midsummer cushions No longer kept NorthumberlandIn Northumberland on Midsummer Day stools were dressed with a cushion of flowers.

Colm’s Day fair at Largs

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