Royal Highland Games

Highland games have been going on in Scotland for 900 years, they say. The Braemar Gathering, originally and still a charitable undertaking--indeed, the UK's oldest "friend" society--was begun in 1822. The Braemar Gathering became the Royal Highland Games about 20 years later, when Queen Victoria offered royal patronage, an arrangement that continues today. We knew of the games, which occur the first Saturday of September, from previous visits, and, again, Vicki was able to obtain two more tough tickets to another unforgettable event.

The events go on throughout the day, dancing, drum and pipe bands playing, individual bagpipe competitions, the "heavy" events (tossing a variety of unusual objects), tug of war, conventional track and field, sack races for the kiddies, etc., generally five or six events going on at any time.

Opening procession, Wrights' Walk

Hammer throw

Backward toss (50lb weight, over the bar)

Dancin'

Hornpipe dancin'

Winning the hill climb

Tug of war, constantly, all day long; mostly military service

teams, e.g., the 43rd Highland Artillery, RAF Oldham Field,

etc.

Up closer

Band and baton toss: there was a band playing on the field

almost constantly throughout the day; above the Glenfiddich

(sponsor of heavy games) banner, you'll see a drum major's

baton in the air, with a drum major below rushing to catch it

...another competition

Noon massed bands

Tossing the caber...sort of a telephone pole you toss up in the

air so that it turns 180 degrees and lands at a perfect 

perpendicular; sure, I know it sounds easy...

A pretty good landing; as I recall, it's the number of seconds

the caber stands there before falling that determines the

winner