One of the highlights of our Scotland trip was our visit to a highland games. In Summer, highland games are held throughout Scotland to celebrate Scottish and Celtic culture. We visited the games at the village of Grantown-on-Spey which is an hour's drive south-east of Inverness.

Andrew and I arrived early and were able to grab a seat on the side of the arena. The agenda for the day included Highland dancing, running races, bicycle races, long jump, high jump and some kids events such as haggis tossing and welly throwing. The main reason we were there though was for the highland athletics. We were keen to watch traditional events like the hammer throw and the caber toss.

The day started out with the junior (18-25) heavy events. Although junior implies boys, most of the competitors were tall, muscled men. I guess you need muscles to compete in the heavy events.

My favourite events were:

Weight for Height
Competitors throw a heavy weight as high as they can. The weight was a rectangular lump of metal attached to a chain. It was thrown one handed over a bar which was set at increasing heights above the thrower. Like a high jump bar, except you're throwing a 12kg weight over the bar instead of yourself.



Hammer Throw
The Scottish hammer throw is similar to the modern hammer throw but it has added difficulty. In the highland games, a round metal ball is attached to a shaft about 4 feet in length to form the hammer. Competitors must stand with their feet in a fixed position (no spinning), whirl the hammer around their head and release it over one shoulder.


Caber Toss
The caber was a large log, and was heavy enough that it took two men to carry it onto the field. The object of the caber toss is to have the log turn end over end and land on a line leading directly away from the thrower. A perfect throw ends with the top end nearest the thrower and the bottom pointing directly away. Think of a clock. The caber must be in the 12 o'clock position.

Of the 12 or so boys competing only 2 were able to complete the caber toss successfully. Some boys even had problems picking up the caber. They would hoist it up, attempt to balance it against their shoulder only for it to fall behind them (and the people behind them would scatter.) Sometimes it was even a little scary for the spectators. Part of the caber toss is the "approach" when the athlete runs to gain momentum. Some of these approaches veered off in the direction of the audience. I was ready to make a quick exit if necessary.



We watched all of the junior events and a couple of the masters' events. I developed a bit of a crush on the winner of the junior title. Craig Sinclair dominated the junior events and then went on to compete and perform admirably in the masters' events. I've never been a fan of the pink shirt wearing metro boy. Give me a real man who can toss a caber anyday!

More photos on Flickr...