Three Months In Scotland: Highland Games

Yesterday, we went to the Strathmore Highland games! Featuring:

1) Scottish dancing. This was actually a competition, and the girls (and a few boys) were very intense about it. Some of them were younger than Maeve, and exceedingly cute.

2) Caber throwing. This uses a great big stick like a telephone pole; the athlete throws it so it flips over, and tries to get it to land as close as possible to straight forward, 12:00. We were only there for the junior caber throwing, which came to an abrupt end when the caber broke!

3) A marching bagpipe band. Note the tiny girl drummer in the second picture. She was drumming very competently, complete with twirling the drumsticks, and looking very pleased with herself.

4) Bicycle races. Traditional Scottish cycling, no doubt. Before the race, the cyclists came up to random people and asked them to give a "push" to the bicycle. The second photo is of the two leaders in the final stretch.

5) Hurling the hammer. (All the spinning this involved revealed that, contrary to rumor, Scots all wear bicycle shorts under their kilts.)

6) Tug-of-war. Both Maeve and Brigid decided this was the best part. We had seats right next to it, so we had a great view. All the men would roar as they pulled; poor Brigid was quite terrified.

7) Bagpipe competitions. These provided background music throughout the games.

8) Irish dancing. This was mostly older dancers, and the jumping was quite athletic. Hope my fencing coach doesn't see this, or he'll raise his expectations...

9) Races! These were open to spectators, by age group. Maeve was eager to be in the 5 to 7, and someone talked me into 11 to 14. Maeve is third from the left in the first picture, and the red blur on the far left on the second. I'm on the right in the third. They were giving out Cadbury's bars for prizes--I came in third out of 3, so I got one. Yeah!