The Highland Games
A Scottish tradition where grown adults hurl a tree trunk end over end, pipers battle for glory, and the monarch might be watching from the stand.
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Quick Facts
- Best-known gathering
- The Braemar Gathering, held in early September
- Biggest in size
- Cowal Highland Gathering in Dunoon, late August
- Classic events
- Caber toss, stone put, hammer throw, weight over the bar, hill racing
- Music and dance
- Solo piping, pipe band contests and Highland dancing competitions
- Royal link
- Queen Victoria attended Braemar in 1848, and the royal family has been regular guests since
- Banned dress
- Highland dress was outlawed after Culloden in 1746 and the ban was lifted in 1782
- Legendary athlete
- Donald Dinnie of Aboyne, Victorian-era champion of the heavy events
- Worldwide reach
- Games run in North America, Australia, New Zealand and beyond
The king who supposedly picked a messenger by racing up a hill
The story most often told about the games' origins is that King Malcolm Canmore, in the eleventh century, held a race up Craig Choinnich above Braemar to find the swiftest runner to carry his royal messages. It is a legend rather than a documented event, but it gave the games a wonderfully regal ancestry. The truth is probably more practical. Clan chiefs liked to see how strong and quick their men were, and a contest of lifting, throwing and running was a handy way to spot future fighters, bodyguards and messengers. Music and dance were folded in because the gatherings were also big social occasions. The Braemar Royal Highland Society was founded in 1815, and its gathering became the model for what a Highland Games should look like.
The ban that made the games a symbol
After the Jacobite defeat at Culloden in 1746, the government set out to break the clan system. Wearing Highland dress was outlawed, and the old gatherings of armed clansmen were discouraged. The ban was lifted in 1782. When the games came back in the nineteenth century they were a different thing: less about military readiness, more about heritage and show. Queen Victoria's love of the Highlands helped enormously. She attended the Braemar Gathering in 1848 while staying at nearby Balmoral, and royal attendance has been a fixture ever since. That Victorian polish is why the modern games feel so strongly tied to tartan, kilts and pipes.
What actually happens on the field
The heavy events are the crowd-pullers. In the caber toss, the competitor lifts a long, heavy pole upright, runs forward and flips it so that it turns end over end. It is judged not on distance but on how straight it lands, with a perfect throw said to finish at 12 o'clock relative to the thrower. The stone put is a bit like shot put, though using a rounded stone. At Braemar the stone is heavier than a standard shot, typically 20–26 lb for men, and it is thrown from a standing position. The hammer throw sends a weighted ball on a long handle over the shoulder, and in the weight over the bar, a 56 lb weight is flung one-handed up and backwards over a raised bar. Competitors spin, heave and bellow, often in kilts. Alongside all this run the lighter events: sprints, hill races, tug of war, and competitions for solo pipers and Highland dancers. The dancers, often children in immaculate outfits, take their sword dances and flings extremely seriously.
Dunoon, Braemar and village rivals
Every games has its own character. Braemar is the grand royal occasion, with a march-in of clansmen, Highland dress and a stand for the royal party. Cowal Highland Gathering in Dunoon is the giant, particularly known for hosting the World Highland Dancing Championships. It still holds a pipe band competition, though it stopped being one of the five major pipe band championships after 2013. Smaller gatherings can be just as fiercely loved. The Lonach Gathering in Strathdon starts with a march of men in Highland dress carrying pikes and Lochaber axes. Glenfinnan hosts its gathering in the shadow of the monument marking where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in 1745. Villages also guard their own rules and traditions. Each games chooses its own events and prize cups, and local pride runs high when a home athlete wins.
Strongmen, stones and a famous bridge
The star of the Victorian circuit was Donald Dinnie, born near Aboyne in Aberdeenshire in 1837. He dominated the heavy events and the jumping and running contests, and became one of the first sporting celebrities in Britain, touring internationally. He is also tied to the Dinnie Stones, two huge granite boulders with iron rings, kept at Potarch Bridge on Deeside. Together they weigh over 330 kg. Dinnie is said to have carried them across the width of the bridge, and strongmen still try to repeat the feat today. His career helped inspire the idea of the all-round Highland athlete, a figure that still looms over every games field.
A Scottish party that went global
Scots who emigrated took the games with them. Today there are gatherings across the United States and Canada, as well as Australia and New Zealand, often with the same kilts, caber and pipe bands. Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina hosts one of the best-known American events. In some of these places the tradition can look even more tartan-heavy than at home, with clan tents and surname searches alongside the sport. Back in Scotland, the games remain a summer fixture, a mix of serious competition, music, food stalls and a thoroughly good day out.
Notable people
- Donald Dinnie
- Queen Victoria
- Malcolm Canmore
- Bonnie Prince Charlie
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