Clan gathering made £600,000 loss

There are hopes the event will be staged again in the future

The international clan gathering held in Edinburgh as part of the Year of Homecoming made a £600,000 loss.

But Edinburgh City Council and the Scottish government have agreed to a bail out which could see the event repeated in the future.

The gathering attracted 47,000 people from at least 40 countries and is said to have generated more than £10m for the Scottish economy.

The loss was incurred by the company which staged the huge event.

Almost half of the loss will be written off by the Scottish government, and the remainder taken on by the the public/private partnership body set up to co-ordinate marketing activity in the city, Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (DEMA), which hopes to run a more profitable Gathering in the future.

The Gathering formed the centrepiece of the Homecoming celebrations, which marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of national bard Robert Burns.

It culminated with a clan parade along the Royal Mile and a pageant on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle.

Organisers said demand for tickets had been "phenomenal", despite the event not selling out.

The convention saw 100 of Scotland's clan chiefs assembled together for the first time in recorded history.