Highland Games in Scotland - The Best Events (2024)

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What is the best Highland game in Scotland? ›

SCOTLAND'S MOST ICONIC HIGHLAND GAMES

The Braemar Gathering, held in September, is the biggest and most prestigious Highland Games event and enjoys the annual attendance of the Royal Family. Its origins are Royal too.

Scotland's Highland games are usually one-day events taking place in outdoor spaces across the country. They feature traditional Highland sports such as the caber toss, tug o' war and the hammer throw, Highland dancing and music, and lots of family fun such as food and craft stalls and games.

Home > Everything You Need to Know About the Highland Games

It's one of Scotland's oldest traditions. With tartan kilts for all to see, thrilling tug o' war fights, bagpipes blaring out into the crowds, and plenty of whiskey and dancing, this is an event that every vacationer should attend at least once in their life.

More than 60 Highland Games are held across Scotland throughout the season, from the Carmunnock Highland Games in the south all the way up to the Durness Highland Gathering in the very north of the mainland. Below are just some of the most notable and best-known Highland Games events that take place every year.

Kilts: The kilt is the quintessential symbol of Scottish heritage and is widely worn at the Highland Games. Traditional kilts are made from tartan, a patterned wool fabric representing specific Scottish clans or regions. If you have Scottish ancestry, consider wearing a kilt that reflects your family's heritage.

The world's biggest Highland Games are the Cowal Games held in Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland. These games are also home to the World Highland Dancing Championship where dancers gather from the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa to compete in this form of traditional Scottish dance in its homeland.

Meat pies, bridies, Cornish pasties, sausage rolls, sausage links and scones are part of the traditional Scottish food served at Highland games.

No Highland Games would be complete without kilts. Although there is no official dress code for the Highland Games, recent rules ensure that competitors wear a kilt in many events.

For almost 200 years, the Braemar Gathering has been a highlight of the sporting calendar in Scotland. Nestled beneath bucolic, heather-strewn mountains, it is the most prominent and well-attended Highland games in the world, drawing vast crowds from across the globe.

tossing the caber, a Scottish athletic event consisting in throwing a “caber,” a straight, approximately 17-foot- (5-metre-) long log (from which the bark has been removed) so that it turns over in the air and falls on the ground with its small end pointing directly opposite the tosser.

What is the stone throw in the Scottish Highland Games? ›

Competitors throw a large stone of around 20 - 26lbs in weight as far as they can. The stone is thrown either after a short run-up to the toeboard or from a fixed standing position, depending on the rules of the competition. The contestant who throws the furthest wins.

To this day, there are still clan chiefs that head up the family. For centuries, clans formed the backbone of Scotland's political system, until the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

The Braemar Gathering (Attended by the Queen) The gathering is held every year on the first Saturday in September. The games are held in The Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park in Braemar.

Football. Football is, without question, the number one sport in Scotland and every great sport is not complete without a rivalry to match.

Ceres Games are the oldest free games in Scotland. There has been a market and games held here at the end of June, every year (except for war and during the period of the 1746 Act of Proscription) since 1314.