Pre-trip work!

 May 11, 2025   Happy Mother's Day & the Gourock Highland Games 2025!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! I dropped a hint in yesterday's post about a big day so let's get to it! We had hoped we would get to experience some singularly Scottish culture while we were here and Rod found it in an advertisement for highland games. We drove about an hour and 20 minutes south west to the town of Gourock for a whole afternoon of bagpipes, Scottish dance, men and women throwing heavy things, food trucks, and porta-potties. The weather was perfect!

This field was where the heavy stuff was thrown. More on that to come.

We got there right when it opened at noon. Eventually, 10,000+ people attended, according to the news.

Gourock is on the mouth of the River Clyde which empties into the water on the west side of Scotland.

The events for each category, (pipes, dance, throwing) continued all afternoon so you could move between them and see the groups you wanted. There was also plenty of food trucks, carnival games, and craft booths. 

Let's start with the pipes. The groups would march/walk into a circle on the grass, turn inward and play standing still. The skill of the competitors increased as the day went on. We asked some teenage competitors to explain the pipe competition and they said although schools were there, it was an open competition and other groups not from schools were also participating. This group is warming up. The pipes take almost constant tuning, we were told.  

This is the Stirling School Pipe Band warming up.

Here's what they sound like:

Here's a different band in the tuning area.

Here's Stirling lined up and ready to enter the judging circle.

This is them marching/walking into the judging circle.

Here's what they sounded like during their performance:

Let's move to dance for a wee bit. The dancers were divided into four age groups, ranging from 7-16, and judged on footwork, stamina, and presentation. They all performed the same choreography and competed against one another. The first video is the Highland Fling.

The second video is the Strathspey and Highland Reel with the oldest dancers. This is the end of the day and these dancers have danced four different dances throughout the afternoon. They must be exhausted! 

 

On to throwing heavy stuff. This included men and women and the events were listed in the following program.

The pictures and videos are from far away. I apologize. The best spots were taken by the more serious fans and also, for safety reasons, we were kept at a distance when heavy things were being thrown. 

The dot and line are showing the bar over which the dot is to be thrown. This is the women's category and the weight is 28 lbs.

Here is the same picture without the white line and dot.

Here is a different contestant, also a woman throwing 28 lbs, in action. 

That's all I have for the women. Here are the men's competitions. The first video is a man throwing what looked to be a rock weighing 28 lbs. 

Here is a man warming up, throwing either a 16 or 22lb Scot's Hammer.

Another contestant with a Scot's Hammer taking his turn in the event.

The next event was the one Aaron was waiting for all day. He wanted to see the men toss the caber. For those of you, like me, who do not know what a caber is, it's a short telephone pole! Where did the idea of this game come from? Soldiers flipping tall ladders against castle walls??

You get help bring the pole into position, but after that, you are on your own.

The contestant stands in first position (to use a ballet term) to brace the lifting of the pole into a vertical position.

Once the pole is vertical, he lifts it.

Next, he runs for a short distance.

Still running.

And finally, the flip! Not many contestants were successful on flipping the caber, so it must be a lot harder than this guy makes it look.

At the end of the day, we returned to listen to one more band warming up, pay close attention to the drummers twirling the mallets, and finished the day watching all the bands together in the two performance arenas for the awards ceremony. It was the most piper bands I will ever see at one time. What a glorious Mother's Day!