Highland Games in Scotland

[cessna152towser]

Thistledown wrote:-

At the Newtonmore Games there's the Macpherson tent because that's where the locals welcome their own and visitors. At the Moy Game Fair there's the Clan Chattan tent just beside Moy Hall to provide hospitality to the neighbours (including Jock) and clansfolk alike.

This sums up the situation fairly accurately. At a regular annual Scottish Highland Games there are usually no clan tents or if there is one, only the local clan/family will be represented, for example I have co-hosted a Clan Cunningham tent at Cumnock Games in Ayrshire two or three times.
The only games where I have seen a Clan Village was Aboyne. I went there in 2011 where I was sharing a tent with the Council of Scottish Armigerous Clans and Families. We had about a dozen armigerous families represented and there were at least ten individual clans who had their own separate tents.
I suspect there will be a few events in 2014 which will include a clan village. Thinking back to the last Homecoming Year I hosted a Clan Cunningham tent in the Clan Village at the Muster of the Clans at Bowhill Selkirk in September 2009 where many lowland families were represented including several Clan Chiefs and Heads of Family.

[creagdhubh]

At the Newtonmore Games there's the Macpherson tent because that's where the locals welcome their own and visitors. At the Moy Game Fair there's the Clan Chattan tent just beside Moy Hall to provide hospitality to the neighbours (including Jock) and clansfolk alike. At Aboyne, look to the Gordons; at Oban look to the Campbell fly. Don't try to create a similarity between New World and Scottish 'Highland Games' because they are vastly different. Ask what a Highland gathering IS.

Precisely, Rex!

The annual Clan Macpherson Gathering and Rally held in Newtonmore and Kingussie, Inverness-shire. The men of the Clan Macpherson march from Old Ralia to The Eilan at the Newtonmore Highland Games. After the march, we all gather at the Clan Macpherson tent for a well earned dram.

[Liam]

Kyle....great pictures...

[creagdhubh]

Kyle....great pictures...

Cheers, Liam! I can be seen holding the Bratach Uaine, or the Green Banner of the Clan Macpherson. A wonderful honour bestowed upon me by my Chief, Sir William Alan Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie, TD.

[Alan H]

Nice pictures, Kyle! That's excellent.

This thread sums up why I want to throw at several SCOTTISH Games..in SCOTLAND. I'm opting out of the Masters World Championships in Scotland next year. They'll be in September in Inverness. There will be 125+ Masters athletes on the field, at least 100 of which will be from the USA. If I wanted to throw at an American Games, I'd go throw at something over here, not travel to Scotland to do it. It's not that the MWC isn't fun...it is. I thoroughly enjoyed them in 2012, in North Carolina. However, there's no point in spending all that money to go do something over there, that I could do on THIS side of the pond.

I'm so very much looking forward to Rosneath, Inverary, Inverness and Airth, next summer.

[Liam]

Cheers, Liam! I can be seen holding the Bratach Uaine, or the Green Banner of the Clan Macpherson. A wonderful honour bestowed upon me by my Chief, Sir William Alan Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie, TD.

I saw you - white gloves and all!

[creagdhubh]

I saw you - white gloves and all!

Hahaha! Indeed.

[creagdhubh]

Nice pictures, Kyle! That's excellent.

This thread sums up why I want to throw at several SCOTTISH Games..in SCOTLAND. I'm opting out of the Masters World Championships in Scotland next year. They'll be in September in Inverness. There will be 125+ Masters athletes on the field, at least 100 of which will be from the USA. If I wanted to throw at an American Games, I'd go throw at something over here, not travel to Scotland to do it. It's not that the MWC isn't fun...it is. I thoroughly enjoyed them in 2012, in North Carolina. However, there's no point in spending all that money to go do something over there, that I could do on THIS side of the pond.

I'm so very much looking forward to Rosneath, Inverary, Inverness and Airth, next summer.

You WILL have so much fun, Alan! We will be in Badenoch next summer, so hopefully we can make it to one of the games you mentioned. It would awesome to meet you as well as to see you in action!

[AcuteEnigma]

At the Newtonmore Games there's the Macpherson tent because that's where the locals welcome their own and visitors. At the Moy Game Fair there's the Clan Chattan tent just beside Moy Hall to provide hospitality to the neighbours (including Jock) and clansfolk alike. At Aboyne, look to the Gordons; at Oban look to the Campbell fly. Don't try to create a similarity between New World and Scottish 'Highland Games' because they are vastly different. Ask what a Highland gathering IS.

Aye, ThistleDown, that is my exact point. Just because we don't do something exactly like it is done in Scotland, does not make it wrong.

[ThistleDown]

No, AE, it doesn't. Your question was how many clan tents are there at games in Scotland; you said that at Halkirk you had only seen tents of Gunns and Sinclairs. What we are trying to say here is that tents at Scottish games and fairs are simply venues for local hospitality. So, in the lands of the Gunns and Sinclairs, there are Gunn and Sinclair tents. Similarly the Campbells at Inverary, the Macphersons at Newtonmore, the Clanchattan at Moy, the Cunninghams at Cumnock, etc. The Games in Scotland are not gatherings of clans but the gathering (perhaps, but not always) of the one clan within whose traditional territory the particular Games is being held.