The History of Scotch Hop

Linlithgow Scotch Hop was first organised, and compered, in 1979 by John Carswell. At first it was known as “Scottish Dancing For All”, the principle which still guides us today. Over the years a committee formed to help John with the increasing workload of organising the event, and running it each night. Some of the main contributors in those years were Allan and Janette Scott.

In 2014, a largely fresh committee was formed to organise the event, with John advising. A further set of volunteers old and new helped each night. We were lucky to have the continuing support and guidance of Bryan McAlister, Tony and Gwen McKerron, and the Scotts.

Starting with the 2016 season, the committee decided to convert into a SCIO, a type of Charity organisation which had only recently been formalised in law. Most of the previous Committee became Charity Trustees of the SCIO.

2020 and 2021 were challenging years for many organisations, with the global pandemic of COVID19 severely limiting gatherings of any sort. Scotch Hop could not run at all in those years. In 2022 only a single event could be run (for October rather than July/August, and in Linlithgow Academy).

In 2023 we started with two summer events, in the Palace’s Great Hall instead of the courtyard (and we had nice weather so did not use our new indoor venue, Queen Margaret’s Hall). We then ran another October event, again in the Academy.

In 2024 we returned to having 5 summer events, still in the Palace’s Great Hall, with Low Port again as our backup venue. We also ran an autumn event in the Academy.

About Us Now

Since early 2016 (our 27th year), Linlithgow Scotch Hop has formally been a SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation), regulated by OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator). The details of our SCIO registration are : Full name: Linlithgow Scotch Hop SCIO Charity number SC046165 You can find more details of what this means at the OSCR website