Rallye at the River – 3rd May 2026

Scottish Community Chapter Coordinator, Ken Graham reports in on a beautiful river side setting for the fifth annual “Rallye at the River”

Having attended a different event at this location a couple of years ago, my memories weren’t great, as it rained continuously from arrival to about 2/3pm!! So, considering a return to the same area took a bit of consideration, and not a little trepidation too!

“Rallye at the River” is organised by the NE Scotland Ford RS Owners Group, and they were celebrating their 5th annual event this year. I did wonder, if you pardon the pun, that the event may be a little ‘Ford Focussed’! But, from my initial enquiry the organisers could not have been more enthusiastic to have us along, and said they ‘would be delighted to see a group of our very rare cars at the show’.

They have a very popular drive out on the Saturday of the event weekend, but our members all chose just to attend on the Sunday.

The setting, as you can see from the photos is stunning – right on the banks of the River Dee. Our spot could not have been better, at the side of the river itself and, helpfully, quite near the toilets! There were over 600 cars being exhibited which led to the organisers stressing not to leave it too late to arrive as we could get turned away after 9.30am – fortunately we all got in place in plenty of time.

The weather did behave itself, by staying dry. However, the previous week had seen temperatures in the high teens – that dropped 9 or 10 degrees, so we were a little chilly!

We had a lovely day catching up with James and Natalie Buchan and meeting new NE Scotland Figgy friends Aileen, and Michelle and Archie.
As usual loads of people were keen to look at and find out about our cars. We also had a visit from a (slightly stressed) judge, who was struggling, given the number of display cars on site, to find all the cars he’d been allocated to assess! I’m not sure if his stress levels were a factor, however I was delighted at the end of the day, to receive a trophy for ‘Fergus’ for 3rd place in the 1990 to 1999 category!!

We’ll certainly be looking to return to this beautiful location, and maybe next time we’ll get those high teens temperatures!!

Enjoy the gallery of photos from the day, and thanks as ever to Ken for organising club attendance!

Thanks to bestviewedfromabove.co.uk for the aerial photograph!