THE HIGHLAND GAMES
By J. J. MILLER THERE is no other kind of athletic fixture in Scotland which has so long and so closely been linked up with national sentiment as the series of annual Gala Days termed the Highland Games. These festivals begin with the first Saturday of June and continue until the end of September. They form an institution inherently Scottish. Nowhere else in the world do we find anything quite the same. Even the casual visitor feels a sense of personal contact as he views the scenic environment and catches the glamour of Highland pageantry and sport.
Whence came these Gatherings ? How old are they ? What has been their influence on rural life and national outlook ?
In all probability the shires of Inverness, Nairn, and Aberdeen provided the earliest of the meetings organized on the lines of a modern Highland Gathering. To find the more aggressively " Highland " inflexion we must still go north beyond the line of the Forth and Clyde canal.
In the midlands—as represented by the shires of Lanark, Stirling, Fife and part of the Lothians—the Galas, though retaining much of the Highland in char- acter, have mostly conformed with the modern urge for , adventitious aids. The standard feats of strength, skill, agility and grace—throwing the hammer, putting the stone, weight throwing, tossing the caber, leaping, , vaulting and wrestling, leavened with- pipe music and Highland dancing competitions, have been augmented with cycling handicaps, juvenile dancing, whippet racing, horse trotting and even with brass band contests.
In the central area we find many important meetings, such as Strathallan, Crieff, Pitlochry, Thornton, Saughton, Alloa, Alva and Airth. Thornton, which we used to term the " Fife Olympia," was for some years the most largely attended Gathering in Scotland. On the last Friday of July, 1909, 60,000 attended at Lochty Bridge, a figure which remains the Scottish record for a function of this kind. Thornton Gathering declined considerably, chiefly owing to industrial depression, but recently there has been improvement and I expect that the forthcoming Gathering of July will see many former glories revived.
Two of the Fifeshire Galas have long pedigrees. At the village of Ceres, near St. Andrews, there is held annually a Games Meeting which was instituted as part of the general rejoicings when the contingent of Fife warriors returned from the Battle of Bannockburn. So it has gone on for more than 600 years. And 'the Strathmiglo Games were founded und,ei a Great Seal charter of confirmation " dated June 26th, 1605.
Strathallan Highland Gathering may be taken as the Scottish standard of all that goes to the making of a . popular Gala today. Held on' the first Saturday in August it is the rallying-ground of Scotland's foremost athletes, pipers and dancers, and, no less, of Sporting Democracy for fifty parishes round. Here is a region rich in romance and steeped in legendary lore. Nearby is Abbey Craig with Wallace Monument, crowned by the figure of Scotland's soldier-hero, carved in stone. Within gun-shot, too, we have the frowning .ramparts of Stirling Castle, where much of Caledonia's history was cradled and, in a hollow, there is the Royal Park where six centuries ago, at a historic Highland Gathering, the Black Douglas hurled the bar, cast the stone and wrestled under the eyes of James VI and his Royal Court.
There is a wonderful magnetism about Strathallan. It is a kind of Veterans' Mecca and Reunion. Every Scottish champion in the light and heavy events during the past seventy years has competed there, and the winning of a first prize there today marks the winner as a reputed " blue ribboner " in his particular feat. Last August I met at least six veterans on the field who had competed at Strathallan thirty, forty, and even fifty years ago. Several of the officials have more than fifty years' service on the directorate. Like many other Gatherings in Scotland—but probably in a greater degree than any of the others—Strathallan seeks to carry on a missionary effort for the encouraging of youthful talent, alike through tuition and opportunity for competition. Practice ground facilities are provided and the services of veterans are often available in practical and '..theoretical instruction. Then these boys have an opportunity of testing themselves when the Gathering conies round: A list of " confined events " is included in the programme and, besides money prizes in each event, there is a Championship Trophy, known as the Chieftain's Cup, for the district athlete gaining the most points all round.
Outside what I may term the Northern Circuit there are two excellent presentations of all that is traditional in an orthodox programme to be seen in the pleasing celebrations of Luss, by the Banks of Loch Lomond, and at Inveraray, Argyll. Inveraray Gathering, held in the Stable Park, adjacent to the historic Castle, claims to have had Games there since 1554.
At the end of the summer we have that spate of classic Highland Gatherings allied with the end of the fashionable season and the return south of the shooting and fishing tenants. At each of these Piping competitions are predominant, particularly at Oban and Inverness, where the Pibroch playing may occupy a continuous session exclusively for seven hours.
Now that the Gathering of Haddo House—where the late Lord Aberdeen was presiding genius for a lifetime-- is dead, the Aboyne Gathering may be reckoned, from the athletic viewpoint, Aberdeenshire's foremost. But, great Gathering though it be, it is eclipsed in all but the athletic sense by its near neighbour of the following day—Royal Braemar.
Here you have a marvellous epitome of national homage, spectacular thrills, athleticism and Highland pageantry. The Standard was unfurled on the Braes o' Mar in 1715. But here today more than two hundred years of history seem to be bridged in a few seconds as the Clansmen march into the Royal Park. The pikes and Lochaber axes glint in the sun as the colourful tartans wave in kilt and plaid. Then there is the Royal reception as the equipage with greys and scarlet outriders arrive. Thirty thousand people and over 2,000 motor-cars surround the little area of green turf: The cheers from 30,000 throats mingle with the tooting from 2,000 motor horns as the Royal Party take up their position in the heather-decked pavilion to watch the progress of the Games.
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