Ashbourne Highland Gathering - 2011

[Chas]

Sunday the 17th of July 2011, saw the 26th year of the Ashbourne Highland Gathering.



Although I have been to Harpenden three years running, I had never been to Ashbourne. After some hasty posts and PMs, the decision was made. It was to be a three hour trip, so I left home just after 06:15. The journey was somewhat eventful as the weekends are the time when most roadworks happen. Link this to an eccentric sat-nav, which always trys to take me by the most 'interesting' route and it was almost 3 1/2 hours on the road.

I had been prepared for the £8.50 entrance fee, but the £1.50 for parking came as a little bit of a shock. I then discovered that the programme was an additional £2.00!

Not wishing to criticise, but Harpenden is £3.00 all in. Ashbourne are worrying about going broke. A link between the costs and attendances - maybe.

Through the gate and you get one of these around round your wrist.



Before the crowd arrive:







Sunglasses - not required that day!

More to come.

Regards

Chas

[Chas]

Ashbourne is a venue for one of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association competitions.

These were the bands in the competition.



Note that three of the bands wear Royal Stewart and two wear MacLean of Duart.

It was drizzling of and on and the bands practised where there they could.







Shiny bass drum skins seem to very popular.



Pipe tuning in progress.



More to come.

Regards

Chas

[Chas]

Because I didn't have a tent to worry about, I was able to see many of the activities.

The craft tent. Some very cheap mineral/jewelry - I bought a necklace for my wife, And a range of fudge also.







Met this gentleman in the craft tent, wearing the Lynch tartan.



Kept seeing this couple everywhere.





More to come.

Regards

Chas

[creagdhubh]

Very nice Chas, thanks mate!

Cheers,

[Chas]

We had arranged an XMarks meet-up for 12:00 and, of course, we never miss the opportunity to take pictures.

rsvpiper and son, me and tpa and mrs tpa



And then suddenly Dougle was there, so we had to take more pictures.

Me, rsvpiper and son, Dougle, Mrs tpa and tpa.



rsvpiper went to try and join the solo piping competition, Mr and Mrs tpa took up positions near the main arena. So Dougle and his partner and I went offto explore.

The Scottish Country Dancers were quite good, but also got quite wet.





The hill race is very popular locally.



There are some people who only come to enter and some who only come to watch them. One man went round with a pair of German Shepherds.

More to come.

Regards

Chas

[Chas]

We saw the warm-ups of the junior solo piping comps.









A very engaging Scottish lad from Dumfries wearing the Queen of the South tartan. He had a quite mature philosophy "If a piper doesn't enter competitions and pit himself against other, he will never improve. Win or loose, you have to strive against others to better them."



More to come.

Regards

Chas

[Chas]

There was, of course, the dancing competition.

It all happens so fast, that if you wait for a good shot, it's all over before you press the shutter. As I don't know the dances well enough (or hardly at all), I tend to just point and shoot!







Can anybody spot the sign of distress in this picture?





More to come.

Regards

Chas

[Chas]

Some random pictures of people at the event.

These two pics of the University of Bedfordshire Pipe Band. Note how they look totally different from the front and the back. Tartan is Black Stewart.





Some band members between performances.



Most of the kilties there were band members. Apart from the XMarkers there very few others. The gent in the middle was a fast walker and I had to run to keep up.



Another non-band person.



More to come.

Regards

Chas

[Downunder Kilt]

Thanks for the great photos Chas, I can imagine I am there at the games. As for the distress situation, perhaps someone had dropped their beverage and were alerting others

[dougle]

nice photos chas