41 Fun Facts About Highland Games

What is the pouch that hangs at the front of a kilt, standing in for pockets, called?

A sporran can even need paperwork: under a Scottish law of 2007, the owner of one made from a protected animal such as an otter may have to hold a licence.

The Ceres Games in Fife honour villagers who fought for Robert the Bruce at which battle?

Bannockburn: the games began in 1314 to mark the village men's return from the battle and are still held each June, billed as the oldest free games in Scotland.

A perfect caber toss is scored as what?

12 o'clock is the top mark because a toss is read like a clock face from where the thrower stands: the caber must flip end over end and land pointing dead ahead, and one that topples sideways scores 9 or 3.

The 'Braemar' and 'Open' styles are the two versions of which Highland heavy event?

Putting the stone keeps a real stone where the Olympics use a metal shot; the Braemar style allows no run-up at all, while the Open style lets the athlete glide or spin.

The Scottish ball-on-a-rattan-shaft event is the forerunner of which Olympic event?

Hammer throw kept the Highland name but changed the tool: Olympic rules swapped the rigid shaft for a steel wire, while the Highland hammer still has a stiff handle about four feet long.

Why do throwers in the Scottish ball-and-shaft event sometimes wear boots with flat blades on the front?

To anchor their feet: unlike Olympic throwers they may not turn or step, so the blades are dug into the turf to hold them against the pull of the whirling weight.

Which dance often seen at Highland games is performed in naval uniform?

Hornpipe dancers, in the sailor's version seen at the games, act out life under sail: hauling on ropes, manning the yardarm and other shipboard jobs.

What is the small knife that a kilt-wearer tucks into the top of his sock called?

A sgian-dubh is Gaelic for 'black knife'; Highlanders once carried a similar blade hidden in the sleeve by the armpit, where today's is worn with its hilt showing above the stocking.

In the sheaf toss, a burlap-wrapped bundle of straw is thrown over a bar using what?

A pitchfork hoists the sack of straw over a bar that goes up round by round until one thrower is left, the same knockout format as the weight over bar.

What is the classical solo music of the Highland bagpipe, a theme with elaborate variations, called?

Pibroch comes from the Gaelic for 'piper's art'; pipers also call it ceòl mòr, the great music, to set it apart from the marches and dance tunes played at the games.

Which event has light and heavy versions, each thrown one-handed with a spin?

Weight for distance is contested with a 28-pound weight and again with a 56-pound one; a two-handed version of the same throw was twice an Olympic event, in 1904 and 1920.

Which 11th-century Scottish king reputedly staged a Braemar hill race to find his fastest messenger?

Malcolm III, the Malcolm of Shakespeare's play, won his throne by killing Macbeth in battle in 1057; the Braemar Gathering still traces its beginnings to his hill race.

Which novelist staged George IV's tartan-clad royal visit of 1822?

Walter Scott filled Edinburgh with tartan pageantry and put the king himself in a kilt, worn over pink tights; the show did much to make Highland dress a national costume.

The ban on Highland dress followed the Jacobite defeat at which battle?

Culloden was followed within months by laws that outlawed the kilt for civilians and broke up the clan gatherings; the games revived only after the dress ban was lifted in 1782.

Which monarch first attended the Braemar Gathering, starting a royal tradition?

Queen Victoria came in 1848 and reigning monarchs have attended regularly ever since; in 1866 she granted the organising society the right to call itself Royal.

Europe's only private army is based at which Scottish castle, home of the Atholl Gathering?

Blair Castle's Atholl Highlanders are a duke's ceremonial bodyguard and no part of the British Army: a man can join only at the Duke of Atholl's personal invitation.

The Cowal Highland Gathering, one of the world's largest Highland games, is held in which town?

Dunoon was an easy trip by Clyde paddle steamer, and on games weekend its pier became the gateway for thousands of visitors to an event first held in 1894.

Which world championship is decided each summer at the Cowal Gathering?

Highland dancing's world title is settled at Cowal each August, and the qualifying rounds pull in dancers from as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

In Pixar's Brave, Merida wins her own hand at the Highland games by beating her suitors at what?

Archery is the contest Merida picks herself: as her own clan's first-born she claims the right to compete, then outshoots the three clan leaders' sons lined up to marry her.

The Scottish Highland Gathering and Games, held since 1866 and billed as America's oldest, takes place in which US state?

California's games, founded by San Francisco's Caledonian Club, carried on through the 1906 earthquake and two world wars, and have missed only one year, 2020.

The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, nicknamed 'America's Braemar', are held in which US state?

North Carolina's games were founded in 1956 by Agnes MacRae Morton and Donald MacDonald, who modelled them on the Braemar Gathering he had watched in Scotland two years earlier.

Which Scottish dish is hurled for distance in a novelty contest held at some Highland games?

A haggis is hurled in a sport that began as a practical joke in the 1970s and caught on anyway: a throw of 180 feet from 1984 stood as the record for over twenty years.

Which 19th-century strongman from Aberdeenshire gave his name to Scotland's most famous pair of lifting stones?

Donald Dinnie is said to have carried both boulders, 733 pounds between them, across the width of a bridge with his bare hands in 1860.

What is fixed to each of Scotland's most famous lifting stones so they can be gripped?

An iron ring is set into each boulder; a local strongman is said to have carried the pair, 733 pounds in all, across a nearby bridge bare-handed in 1860, and lifters still come to try them.

Which strongman won world Highland Games titles in Nigeria and Scotland?

Geoff Capes won world heavy-events titles in Lagos and at Carmunnock in the 1980s; away from the arena the giant bred prize budgerigars and became president of the Budgerigar Society.

What are a Highland bagpipe's three single-note pipes called?

Drones, two tenor and one bass, sound without a break because air flows from the bag continuously, which is why a piper can never play a moment of silence between notes.

Which Highland-games dance is a comic parody in which the dancer may play a furious washerwoman?

Irish Jig is a Scottish send-up of Irish dancing: in a red and green costume instead of a kilt, the dancer acts out a temper, aimed at her husband in some tellings of the story.

What does the name of the dance 'Seann Triubhas' mean in Gaelic?

Old trousers: the word 'trousers' itself comes from the Gaelic triubhas, and a popular story has the dance's sweeping kicks as a Highlander shaking off the hated trews.

The Sword Dance performed at the games is also known by what Gaelic name?

Ghillie Callum is said to have begun as a victory dance: in the legend a Scottish warrior laid his own sword across his slain enemy's and danced over the crossed blades.

In the Highland Fling, the dancer's raised arms are said to represent what?

A stag's antlers: the Fling is reputed to have begun as a shepherd boy's imitation of a stag on the hill, and it is still danced on one spot from start to finish.

A 1768 letter credits the modern kilt to Thomas Rawlinson, a Quaker ironmaster from which country?

England: so the story goes, the Lancashire Quaker found the belted plaid too cumbersome for the Highlanders working his furnace in the 1720s and had an army tailor cut it down, though other accounts date the short kilt earlier.

The original 'great kilt' was a single long length of cloth; what did its upper half double as?

A cloak by day, or a hood pulled up over the head: the short kilt worn at today's games is essentially just the bottom half of that old belted plaid.

Which Highland games contest was an Olympic sport from 1900 until it was dropped after 1920?

Tug of war began as a country pastime before its Olympic spell; at the games each team of eight hauls to the shouts of a ninth member, a coach calling instructions from the side.

Which TV drama staged a Braemar Gathering, the royal family looking on, in its episode 'The Balmoral Test'?

The Crown shot its Braemar scenes not on Deeside but on the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore; in the episode the Thatchers endure a weekend with the royal family at Balmoral.

Edinburgh has the Tattoo, but as of 2026 which Scottish city is home to the World Pipe Band Championships?

Glasgow stages 'the Worlds' on Glasgow Green every August, but the top prize does not always stay in Scotland: the 2026 Grade 1 champions, Simon Fraser University, came from British Columbia.

The Lonach Highlanders march round the big houses of Strathdon before their games armed with what?

Pikes, along with Lochaber axes: the clansmen parade them through the glen and then into the arena, as they have at a gathering that dates from the 1820s.

The Glengarry Highland Games, among the largest in the world, have been held since 1948 in which country?

Canada's Glengarry is a corner of Ontario named for a Scottish glen; its games at Maxville also decide the North American Pipe Band Championships each summer.

In which Canadian province had Highland games been held by at least 1863?

Nova Scotia is Latin for New Scotland, a name from a royal charter of 1621; the Antigonish Highland Society, founded there in 1861, has staged its games since the 1860s.

A 16th-century English exercise similar to the caber toss was known as what?

Sweden has a comparable sport called stangstortning.

Roughly how long is the caber tossed at a Highland games?

About 18 feet is typical, and it weighs 90 pounds or more; before the run the tosser has to balance it upright, narrow end down, in nothing but a pair of cupped hands.

What title does the reigning British monarch hold at the Braemar Gathering?

Chieftain is the title of the ceremonial head who opens any Highland games; at Braemar it belongs to the reigning monarch, while other gatherings have handed it to Susan Boyle and Ewan McGregor.