With record numbers turning up to join in the popular community and cultural event, its success is now helping to strengthen even more the links between the area and Scotland.

"We had the Whitlees Community Band from Ardrossan over for the first time and some of them might have been a bit dubious about what they were coming to," said Bobby Acheson, one of the Cairncastle organising committee members.

"However, when they got here they just could not believe it. The community support was phenomenal and the spirit of the whole festival was just great. Everybody worked well together and it made for the best festival ever.

"In fact, the Ardrossan folk are now going to set up their own Ulster-Scots group, they were so taken with it all."

A variety of events from Wednesday onwards brought together a celebration of song, dance, history and folklore. On the Saturday evening alone, the traditional soiree featuring 45 musicians from Ireland north and south and from Scotland attracted several hundred visitors, with the marquee filled to capacity.

"The festival brought together people of all ages, from Canada, New Zealand, England, Scotland and every county in Northern Ireland. It brought together people of both traditions and when you saw everyone joined at the praise service it really was phenomenal; quite an emotional experience," admitted Bobby.

"We had people from Australia who were back for the first time in Northern Ireland for 30 years and they thoroughly enjoyed it. There were visitors who intended coming for one night and ended up staying over to enjoy more. It was just hard to take it all in.

"We are totally delighted it all went so well and once again the festival has helped the economy of the area, with people staying at local guest houses and so on. On behalf of the organising committee I would like to thank everyone most sincerely who was involved in making the festival such a success, both by taking part in any way and by attending the events," he added.

To keep memories of the festival alive, a DVD is being produced - to be launched in September - which will feature some of the events in Cairncastle and also highlights of the locally-based Grousebeaters group's visit to Scotland earlier this year.