The late George Skinner
Eileen Cornish writes…
George and Ruth have run the one-day Lourin Event at Strathorn in conjunction with Lourin Fair since the mid to late 90’s, prior to the Northern area becoming one of the founding parts of SCDA. They have always been generous with welcoming carriage drivers to use their facilities, and tracks and fields. Even now, there is an RDA Carriage Driving Group based at Strathorn, as well as the Indoor Carriage Driving competitions held there 4 times a year. In 2022 and 2023 Lourin became a 2-day SCDA Points League event, but has not run since, due to various circumstances.
I was always made very welcome whenever I scored, judged, or was general helper/dogsbody to aid the hard work put into an event. George was born on the farm and passed away on the farm, in his 88th year. He was a Clydesdale man through and through, breeding and showing his own stock as well as judging worldwide.
SCDA send their sympathies to Ruth and the family.
Funeral Arrangements
George died peacefully at home, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, aged 87 and a half years. Much-loved husband of Ruth, father of Derek, Bruce and Graham, father-in-law to Laura, loving grandpa of Archie, Ruby and Hamish, brother-in-law and a good friend to many.
The memorial service will be held in Bennachie Parish Church, Chapel of Garioch, on Tuesday, May 5 at 1pm, to which all family and friends are respectfully invited.
Family flowers only please, donations in lieu if so desired, at the church door in aid of Royal Northern Countryside Initiative.
Cardross Event
If you’re not competing and would be able to help steward at the Cardross event, especially on Sunday 10th May, please contact Patsy patsyms@gmail.com urgently. If you have any friends who might like to spend the day at the beautiful Cardross estate, or if you have any extra people in your party at the event who would help out, please get in touch. Patsy does the most delightful lunch!
Hopetoun Painting Day
Thanks to everyone who turned out to paint on what started a very chilly morning but turned out nice in the end. Also to Colin, Ian B and the rest of the A-team for their hard work repairing the obstacles, hammering in new posts, etc. etc. All work that goes on behind the scenes by so many people to make events happen – your support is very much appreciated!
SCDA volunteering opportunities
For more information about volunteering opportunties, please see this page. More on this to follow…
2026 Season – indoor events results
Apologies for the delay in posting these. Links to each of the results can be found on the 2026 Events page, and also the new Results 2026 page which is live! You can also visit the recent posts section (on this page) for the Coxhill and Ian Stark EC results. For the indoor driving trials website’s results pages (Strathorn events), just click on the links on either the Events or the Results 2026 pages.
Obituary – Zoe Ross
Please see this post for a tribute to Zoe – for many years a keen supporter and scorer for SCDA.
Event schedule for 2026
The event list is now published along with links to the schedules and the 2026 entry form. See this post for all the details, or head over to the Events 2026 page for the list of all Scottish events. If you would like to download all the schedules in one document – just click here!
Training schedule update
See the dates of forthcoming training events on the training schedule page, along with full contact and booking details.
2026 Memberships
The 2026 membership form is now available. Please join or renew as soon as you are able – the membership year runs from January 1st to December 31st. You can join online at the website membership page. Bank account details will be provided on the email confirmation. Please pay by BACS as soon as possible after signing up – it makes it easier for the Secretary and Treasurer to check the money is in the correct SCDA Account. You can also download the membership form here which contains all the information you need.
SCDA Points League
Our Points League is kindly sponsored by Gee Gee Rugwash. Please support the businesses who support our sport. Ian is happy to collect rugs at each event and return them to you at the following one.
News archive
Previous stories have now been archived, but are still available online. Click the link here and you’ll be able to read news from the past couple of years.