Historic Dumfries fair fears for future over flood scheme

“We really want to highlight to people in Dumfries and Galloway and for everyone living in Dumfries how fragile the fairs are,” she added.

“They seem so robust and lively and amazing – and they are all those things – but they’re also this kind of incredibly fragile ecosystem of individual family firms that travel from all across Scotland and north and central England to put rides and stalls together.

“I think if you disrupt that ecosystem, for example, by moving the fair to another location or by constricting the fair or shunting the fair into a wee parking lot nearby what that will do is allow the fair to wither and die.

“It may not be immediate, but if you move it, if you constrain it, if you take it off of its historic grounds, it will wither and die – that’s what our research suggests.”

She said she hoped a way could be found to allow the fairs to continue throughout construction and after the defences are completed – should the work go ahead.

“I think it is the kind of thing that once you lose it you will miss it,” she said, adding that it could have an effect on other smaller fairs across the region.