To the 77th Arisaig Highland Games

We had a lovely day out today for my first visit to a Highland Games which entailed rather a long drive to Arisaig, a favourite spot from Woodpeckers' childhood. She had even been to one of these games decades ago. We luckily changed our plan of arriving by train from Fort William, as the games were in a seaside field several miles away from the tiny Arisaig station on the line to Mallaig, which we had been on a few years ago on the Jacobite Steam train service.

It drizzled off and on but it couldn't spoil the low key traditional atmosphere of the games. I hadn't partaken of these specialised games before and was charmed by the simple roped off arena within which the participants took their parts in a traditional play. Spectators were both local and foreign, some dressed in traditional forms of kilts, tartans, wooden walking sticks, leather hats, hand knitted woolies and tweeds, of course.

Getting out of the car we were greeted with the sound of pipers warming up and then playing their repertoires in front of the judges, but all in the background, and this continued all afternoon as the piping competition unfurled. Various running races were held intermittently for all ages from five upwards, often all together! Stalls surrounded the arena selling country ware as well as simple foods. We chose the fine fare proffered by the local branch of the Church of Scotland of mostly home baked bread, sandwiches, rolls, cakes and of course, tea. A local distillery were sponsors and proceeded to offer small tipples of a variety of fine old whisky. Very fine indeed. In fact the one I had was the best whisky I have ever tasted, but then it would normally cost £60 per bottle. I would still be tempted, as even a sip might last a lifetime.

But it was the Heavies that were the centre of attention nearly all afternoon as the big men went through their series of events rather like a pentathlon, including throwing huge round weights, which I used to call putting the shot, when I did it at school. Today they had several different weights to contend with. Then there was the Hammer, with a long wooden handle to which a massive wedge was attached. Finally a weight with a large iron handle had to be thrown over the equivalent of a high jump, with ever rising bars. But the event I most wanted to see was 'tossing the caber' when a tree trunk in the shape of a telegraph pole about twenty feet long has to be picked up from a vertical position. Then once stable after a short run the Heavy man had to lift the caber high enough into the air to land its opposite end on the ground and then get the whole caber to pitch forward, all in a straight line for maximum points, much like ice skaters get points of artistry.

I took pictures all day and will add a gallery to my Blipfolio in due course. Tonight we are packing to drive back south to Gloucestershire in the morning, so I am rushing to blip this tonight. I nearly blipped a picture of Helena's mum having a wee dram with Ranald MacDonald, 24th Chief and Captain of Clanranald, who was invited to attend and open the Games. He is the current chief of the Clan and today's event was the 9th Clan Ranald Gathering. Because I was driving, I forsook any further whisky but I did have a colourful conversation with Clanranald. I will add a picture of him and some other of his froends to my Blipfolio eventually.

So my blip has to be of the Highland Dancing competition. A variety of ages of girls performed in various competitions, but this was one of my favourite events, the Sword Dance. A lone piper played for each competitor or group of them all afternoon, as they changed costumes to match the different dances. Several of them slipped over on the very wet wooden stage, after the rain fell very heavily at one point, but they both got up and finished their dance. It was the nature of the day that it was the trying that counted for much more than the winning. The small boy who came in last in the mile race, many minutes after the adult winner, received by far the most applause.