Scottish Highland Games

The Scottish Highland Games are much like Sumo..."It's a sport that combines brute strength with tradition and culture." I just heard a woman announcer on TV use that phrase to describe Sumo. But I'm here to tell you that it also perfectly describes the Highland Games. I spent the day happily outside in a green field, watching men in kilts compete by hurling heavy weights over a bar, throwing hammers, and lifting, balancing, carrying AND HURLING what is essentially a telephone pole. These guys were strong. Two of the competitors were Japanese, and I was unabashedly cheering them on with great favoritism. One guy was a beast. He was one of the larger Japanese men I've seen. He was big and strong and he knew it. Kind of cocky too. The other guy was smaller, but very strong. I think they were rugby players. They had that look about them.

These men competed in "Heavy Events." Before I tell you about it, know that the entire day's soundtrack was the bagpipe competition about 60 feet away. I rather like bagpipes, and was reminded that I would really like to learn to play them. I was hoping I could have found a chanter to purchase, but this was not the place for that apparently. Nearby on a raised stage, there were dance competitions going on for most of the day, accompanied by other bagpipers, so we even enjoyed piping cacophony for some of the day...but no bother. I guess I was not aware that bagpipes are pretty much tuned to the same key, so even if you have a dozen or so players warming up, it sounds pretty good. I actually wandered off to intentionally get in the middle of this great noise.

Back to the Heavy Events. The first event was much like the shot put. The men tossed a very heavy little cube attached to a handle. Then they threw a long handled heavy hammer. This event made me nervous. A slip too early and someone could have gotten hit. Next, they had a high bar. They again used the little weight and stood underneath it, swinging the weight between their legs before sending it flying up and over behind them, with the hopes of clearing the ever rising bar. The best event was the telephone pole slalom during which guys hefted a huge tree and had to balance it while walking between orange cones. As the tree trunk high over head swayed, wavered, wandered and the guys struggled to keep it balanced, we in the audience leaned, oooohhhed, aahhhed, sucked air between our teeth and were thoroughly absorbed in the drama. 'Twas fun.

Oh yeah, I tried haggis, (one bite was more than enough-thought you, Lap) ate fish and chips and drank Irish Ale and a shot of Scottish whiskey. Maybe that's why my tummy hurts tonight.

And here's a fun fact: some of the guys who were not competing in the sport were wearing their kilts the ...um...traditional way. I actually got a surprise peek as one of the snare drummers stepped OVER a fence. I think he knew he'd been spotted, because I turned around away from him and laughed pretty heartily. He and his buddy were laughing too.

If you want a bit of Scottish...check out Mike Myers as the Scottish Father on Youtube.