While Scottish attention is focused on the Commonwealth Games currently taking place in Glasgow, sporting records have been falling at a different occasion hundreds of miles to the north. The Highland Games at Halkirk, Caithness, which have been an annual event since 1886 – aside from intervals during and shortly after the two World Wars and for the Covid pandemic – took place on Saturday 25 July.
This year’s Games open with a procession led by four massed bands, the Thurso & District Pipe Band, The Wick Royal British Legion Pipe Band, the Caithness Youth Pipe Band, and the Highland Pipes & Drums Bad Waldsee, Germany, visiting for the summer. Marching behind the musicians, the clan chief of the local Clan Gunn, John Gunn of Gunn and Banniskirk (naming conventions up here being highly logical) leads the procession of spectators into Halkirk’s Recreation Park, and the various sporting activities can begin.
Heavy lifting
To someone who has never experienced a Highland Games, this is the occasion to see the “heavy events,” where burly men in kilts undertake feats of strength like the caber toss (throwing a tree trunk end over end), the hammer throw, stone throw (using a large stone in place of a shot put) and tossing the sheaf (using a traditional pitchfork to throw a square hessian bag stuffed with straw over a high bar).
However, a Highland Games involves much more than that, incorporating aspects of a school sports day, a local athletics meet and an exhibition of traditional Scottish dancing. Children from as young as five take part in athletics events, the youngest competitors giving the air of racing puppies needing shepherding off the track at the charmingly chaotic end of their races. Serious track races for teenagers and adults alike are interspersed with the sack race and the three-legged race. Track cycling also takes place around the spongey edge of the grass running trackrace. Two junior cycling stars today are the sons of former Scottish road race champion and Commonwealth athlete Evan Oliphant, clearly being groomed to follow in their father’s pedal strokes.
Centre stage
While the track and heavy events are taking place, a canopied stage near the centre of the arena features a Highland dancing competition. Girls and one boy in ornate costumes, which, one mother confides to me, can cost up to £1,000 each, perform the Highland fling, the sword dance and, a dance called Seann Triubhas (meaning “old trousers”), the Scottish version of an Irish jig (where the fist-punching choreography is supposed to represent an angry washerwoman), and finishing up with an exquisite sailor’s hornpipe.
A lone teenaged bagpiper accompanies each set dance, which is repeated many times until every competitor has performed, all the while having to compete with the starting gun and final round bell for the athletics races, the cheers of the crowd watching the heavy events, and the periodic laps around the track of the massed pipe and drum bands. The judges for the dancing are huddled in what looks like a birdwatchers’ hide facing the stage.
Astonishingly, given the blustery day and multiple costume changes, the dancers’ hair, scraped back into neat buns, stays in place throughout with the help of a particularly effective brand of hairspray, which I discover is aptly named “Glued”.
Records tumble
By the end of the day, a new world record has been set by Czech former elite shot-putter turned heavy events star, Vladislav “Vlad” Tuláček, in the “weight for height” category, having managed to throw a 56lb weight one-handed over an 18-foot bar (the Highland Games evidently remain in the pre-metrication world), and various venue records in the high jump have also been broken.
All the fun…
The majority of spectators are locals, many of whom have brought their dogs, lending the event the feel of a dog show during which sporting events periodically occur. A small funfair has been erected at one edge of the park, and behind the two rows of benches for spectators are located various food trucks, one of which offers the novel fusion food of “Highland Haggis Nachos,” featuring Irn-Bru pickled red onions along with the chipotle sauce-infused haggis. I am not brave enough to partake, but choose rather a delicious Scotch pie and lentil soup from the more traditional tea tent.
During the day I meet a group of stranded Australians whose ferry to Orkney was cancelled due to rough winds, so the Halkirk Games became their plan B for the day. Having now experienced the Games in all their eclectic glory, I think the weather did them a favour. If you are ever in the Scottish Highlands over the summer, skip the standard tourist trail and seek out a local Games. Just remember to bring warm layers, some cash, and your hairspray.
