My kingdom for a haggis!

The trials and tribulations of getting haggis to Bergen, led to the forming of the Society.

Bergen, 1 Februay 2006

Haggis ordered for a Burns Supper organised by the British Ladies Club in Bergen ended up going astray. On the 10th of January, 23 kg of haggis was ordered from MacSweens in Edinburgh, and to-the-door delivery was promised within five days by delivery company Parcel Force. The allotted five days passed, and no haggis appeared.

After ringing the delivery company, Sandra Magnussen discovered that the haggis had been on a short trip to Denmark and had then been sent back to Edinburgh. The reason? The recipients address - "Destination: Paradis" (Sandra lives in the Paridis district of Bergen) - could not be found!

A second attempt was made to secure MacSweens haggis. This time delivery specialists TNT were entrusted with the important cargo, guaranteeing delivery within 48 hours. But once again, the haggis not destined to enter Paradis.

This time there was a misunderstanding with the address, and the package was sent from Edinburgh on Thursday, 26th January to Bergen, Bavaria! The mistake was only noticed when the truck transporting the package from Munich Airport to Bergen, Bavaria was involved in an accident and all the packages were transferred to another vehicle. The haggis was then sent back to TNT's logistics hub at Liege in Belgium for onward transport. Snow and fog struck, and the poor wee travel-sick haggii had to sit and wait for the weather to clear.

Finally on Saturday, 28th January the important cargo arrived at Oslo for Customs clearance. It was promptly impounded by Customs, who were unsure what it was. The word "lamb" had been written on the packaging, and this was misread as "lampe" (Norwegian for lamp) by an official at Oslo airport, and the poor travel-sick haggii were put in a nice warm warehouse will all the other electrical items to wait until Monday morning for customs clearance.

Meanwhile, back in Bergen the Burns Supper was due to start at 19:30 on the 28th of January. Sandra and Pat Schreuder decided a solution for the impending crisis was urgently required, and local butcher Solheim Kjøtt was asked to step in to the breach. Although not having all the correct ingredients, Solheim Kjøtt made a valiant effort to produce a haggis substitute in time for the Burns Supper.

With the substitute haggis in place, the rest of the evening was a tremendous success. The guests were piped in, the traditional toasts and speeches were delivered and well received, and the immortal memory of Robert Burns was remembered and celebrated once again. A ceilidh brought the Burns Supper to a close, with the guests taking part in some Scottish Country dancing and enjoying music from the bagpipes and accordion.

This was the first large Burns Supper to be held in Bergen for many years, and the success of the event led the organisers to establish the Bergen Scottish Society a few months later.

So what happened to the haggis in transit? They were eventually cleared by customs on Tuesday, 31st January, were sent to Stavanger, then finally arrived in Bergen on that evening. After such a journey, and in view of storage condition under transit, it was decided to humanely euthanase the rather sickly looking (and smelling) haggii.

Read more about the trials and tribulations of getting haggis to Bergen in the following articles:

Innvoller på utflukt
Bergens Tidende, 19 February 2005

Bergen butcher had to try his hand at haggis
Sunday Post, 13 February 2005