it’s a bit of a scottish flingukcityimages.com/braemar.pdf · pipes are like marmite, you either...

Copyright Alistair & Jan Campbellwww.ukcityimages.com

Text and photographs by Alistair & Jan Campbell

From Wester Ross to Nova Scotia, the ancient tradition of Highland games and gather-ings are celebrated far beyond their traditional Scottish boundaries. Gatherings can befound as far afield as New Zealand, USA, Canada and Brazil. Making these festivals ofathleticism, music and dance one of Scotland’s most successful cultural exports.

Among the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland,there are over 80 different game venues. Everyweekend from May to mid-September the gameswill provide a heady mixture of physical and cre-ative events. All of which will ensure that yourvisual and hearing senses are fully occupied.Watch out (quite literally) for the ‘heavies’, theterm used to describe events such as tossing thecaber, hammer and stone – in fact almost any-thing that is heavy and can be thrown, will be.Running, jumping, tug o war etc. are classed aslight events, as are Highland dancing and bag-pipe competitions. Many of these events will betaking place at the same time, and it’s not unu-sual to see runners sprinting past people who arethrowing things, that are landing just short ofdancers, who are trying not to be distracted bymarching bagpipe bands, whom in turn are tryingto avoid the runners. Perhaps I exaggerate everso slightly, but nonetheless the arena is an exhil-arating hive of sound and activity.

It’s a Bit of a Scottish Fling


No games would be completewithout marching kilted bagpipebands. Some say that the bag-pipes are like Marmite, you eitherlove them or hate them. I person-ally love them, but then againwith a name like Alistair Campbellit would be nothing less than na-tional treason to say otherwise.Swirling kilts and the sound of thebagpipes is akin to an ancient callto arms or, alternatively, the signof a good party. I have oftenwondered if the bagpipes stir thesame level of rebellious emotionin non-Scottish nationals. It wouldbe unfair to ask a Highland gamestourist if they enjoy the almostcacophonic skirling and wailing ofthe massed bagpipe bands. Espe-cially when they are surroundedby men (and ladies) in kilts, whoare either throwing heavy thingsaround the field or puffing lifeinto five legged leather bags – Iknow what my answer would be.


These bans and disarming were intended to undermine ancientclan culture and terminate the feudal system employed by clanchieftains. Anyone found disobeying these laws were oftensubject to deportation, to live a life of servitude in some farflung British colony. Despite the harsh punishment the actdidn’t subdue Scottish nationalism, in fact it had the oppositeeffect. So much so that the act was rescinded and abolished in1782, and the games arose from hibernation and once againbecame a celebration of Scottish culture, pride and history.

Depending on who you talk to(and how many drams of whiskyhave been consumed) the originsof the Highland games are slightlysketchy. However, a commonbelief seems to be that clan chief-tains organised the games toidentify their fastest runners andstrongest warriors. Musicians anddancers would also be recruitedfor entertainment during the longdark Scottish winter nights. Sinceat least the 11th century, ancientclan chiefs are said to have pittedtheir best warriors against eachother. A temporary banning of thegames ensued after the failure ofBonnie Prince Charlie’s 1745 Jaco-bite uprising, and his decisivedefeat at the Battle of Culloden.The 1747 Act of Proscriptionbanned any gathering of people,the wearing of Highland dressand the possession of weapons.


With roots dating from the reign of King Mal-colm III of Scotland (1031 to 1093), the Brae-mar Gathering continues to attract Royalpatronage. Since her first attendance in 1848,Queen Victoria was a regular visitor to thegames as is our reigning monarch. I’m sure (butcan’t officially confirm) that this is no ordinaryRoyal duty for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.The relaxed smiles and laughter on the faces ofall attending members of the Royal party, arevery genuine. With this aristocratic pedigree, itis of little surprise that the picturesque village ofBraemar is host to one of the most prestigiousHighland games in the world. Myself and mywife Jan often travel in excess of 500 miles fromour home to attend the games, which alwaystake place on the first Saturday of September.Highland games, and especially the BraemarGathering, is Scottish pageantry at its very best.However, these events are not ostentatious,pretentious or thespian. They most certainly arenot performed just for the sake of the manytourists who are in attendance. The men, wom-en and children who compete are there in pur-suit of personal betterment. Don’t let the bigparty atmosphere fool you the music, danceand athlete competitors take their individualdisciplines very seriously – but win or lose, mostwill probably have a shindig afterwards.


If you are Scottish, the Braemar Gathering will raise your spirits and patriotism to new levels, and ifyou’re not Scottish you will wish you were. At very least you will be expected to depart our borderswith something made of tartan, a bottle or two of whisky, a large tin of shortbread or even a Red HotChili Pipers bagpipe CD. Perhaps some personal genealogy research will reveal that you have a littleScottish ancestry. After all, as a nation the people of Scotland (like the Irish) have colonised and in-fluenced the world far beyond that expected of such a small country. If you dare ask a Scot thequestion ‘what have the Scots ever done for us’, you will receive an almost nationally rehearsed re-sponse which will include names of historical Scottish figures like; Alexander Fleming, John LogieBaird, Alexander Graham Bell, William Wallace, James Watt, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and even JK Rowling. The list goes on and on and on.


Where the Irish had potato faminesto encourage migration, the Scot’shad the Highland Clearances. Someof the Scottish immigrants probablyvoluntary opted to live in a countrywhere, for just five minutes it didn’train, and we could forget about thelost battles with our English neigh-bours. Still, you can neither changeyour countries history or climate,and in the wise words of our adopt-ed national anthem “

”. Or perhaps a more adaptquotation from one of our manynational heroes “

”. And with my cup ofkindness in hand, I will bid you“ ” to which you should al-ways reply “ ”.

it’s a bit of a scottish flingukcityimages.com/braemar.pdf · pipes are like marmite, you either...

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