The Scottish Highland Games

Legend has it The Highland Games has been in existence since before the dawn of Christianity. In those days, the gatherings were essentially war games, designed to select the best warriors in each clan. An unrefined version of the athletic events you can see today. They used the elements and materials of their day-to-day life, thus the caber toss, the stone put, the hammer throw, and the weight toss were their training tools and methods. Many of the events have become more sophisticated over the years.

Highlanders' favourite pastimes was the tainchel. For these "great hunts" very often several clans would combine. Chieftains would send word to the clansmen that such an event was planned and when and where they should assemble. For several days the greater part of the clansmen assembled would go out into the mountains and begin driving the red deer and other animals in front of them in a gradually tightening circle. Soon the animals were driven off the mountains and through the passes where the waiting armed huntsmen would make the kills.

After such a successful hunt a great feast and celebration would be held and venison would be sent to everyone who was unable to attend. Then the rival clansmen would relax by testing each other's prowess at various sports - running, jumping, wrestling, or primitive forms of weight putting with stones, or divided into roughly equal sides vying against each other in a very early form of camanachd or shinty. Lastly the clansmen would vie with each other in piping and in dancing, the pipers taking it in turns to demonstrate their skills and the clansmen to demonstrate their agility and neatness of movement by dancing complicated steps to the pipe music. These relaxations were in effect the forerunners of the modern Highland games.

From the very earliest times Chieftains would arrange races amongst their followers to find the fastest man available for carrying urgent messages in time of war or clan battles. Legend has it that Malcolm Canmore (1057-1093) organized one of the first races run for this purpose. It is said he offered a purse of gold and a fine sword - plus the post itself, to the first runner to make it to the top of Craig Choinich, one of the mountains above Braemar, and return to the starting point.

Highland Games were held annually throughout Scotland until the Battle of Culloden in 1746. After Bonnie Prince Charlie's defeat by the English, the Act of Proscription banned the playing of the bagpipes, the wearing of the kilt, and the gathering of people and the carrying of arms under penalty of deportation or death. This effectively squelched a good part of the Highland culture.

In the latter part of the 18th century, Highland Societies began forming and, in 1781, the first Society Gathering was held in Falkirk. The success of this Gathering led to the Gatherings and Games as we know them today. In 1819 the St. Eilian's Society conducted a full-scale Games. By the end of the 1820s, Games were being held throughout Scotland. In the United States, the first Highland Games were organized by the Highland Society of New York in the mid-1800s. At least four Caledonian Societies were sponsoring Highland Games in this country prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.