An Overview of Highland Games

Heavyweight Athletics

Early Clan chieftains used athletic competition to choose their personal guard. King Malcolm Ceanmore, who began his reign in 1057, is credited with initiating the first Scottish Highland Athletic Games from some sources as a means of improving the abilities of his military, much as the early Olympiads were crude, but effective, by today's standards. Other sources state that the Games were held by Chiefs as early as 1200 BCE in Ireland. Regardless as to when they started, by the sixteenth century the athletic competition had become festive occasions, but were still seen as a way for kings and chiefs to choose the best men for their retinues. Today there are Hundreds of these Games held all over the world, in many classes, including a class for Professionals seen regularly on ESPN.

The early games were developed to test the contestants for strength, stamina, accuracy, and agility. The equipment currently used for the Highland Games has evolved from items locally available to the early Scotsmen, and the games had practical value. A blacksmith's wooden-shafted hammer or "mell" for driving fence posts has become the 22# hammer. Woodsmen produced the "caber" (Gaelic for "tree") for their own event - tossing a tree accurately is useful if you need to cross a stream at full flood. Thrown for distance and height were 28# and 56# steelyard weights. Tossing a sheaf with a pitchfork likely emerged from the agricultural regions. A rounded riverbed stone made the ideal "clachneart."

Each event tests both skill and strength. It takes technique to pick, pop, balance, and toss a caber, just as it does to toss a weight to a sheaf between upright stakes - or to throw a 22# hammer without moving your feet. Rules and techniques have been developed over the years and today's Games are regulated by the Scottish American Athletic Association. 

See Highland Athletes from all over the Southeast compete here, including men from Dunedin, Ocala, Orlando, Miami and our own local lads. You haven't seen a Highland Games unless you've seen a strapping young laddie toss a caber to "twelve o'clock".

Athletic Registration  Athletics Coordinator: W.K. Cummings 478-836-4267

Athletes: Diane Kemp

Overview of Events

Were the Highland Games derived from the Olympics?

If it seems as if these events are like modern Olympic track and Field, it is because the founder of the Modern Olympics,  Baron de Couberlin ,in the years before he founded the Modern Olympic games, visited "Much Wenlock Olympic Games" in Scotland, and the "Cotswold Olimpick Games" in England. Not only were these festivals already using the Olympic name, the program of events were borrowed from these festivals for the track and field portions of the Athens Olympics, with discuss throwing being the only ancient Greek event revived. The Modern Olympic Games are descendants of the Scottish Highland Games, not the Ancient Greek Games. It should never be said that the Highland Games are descended from the Greek Games, since they were occurring even before some of the Ancient Greeks were alive! 

CABER TOSSING (Gaelic cabar, a pole or beam), a Scottish athletic exercise which consists in throwing a section of a trunk of a tree, called the “ caber,” in such a manner that it shall turn over in the air and fall on the ground with its small end pointing in the direction directly opposite to the “ tosser.” Tossing the caber is usually considered to be a distinctly Scottish sport, although “ casting the bar,” an exercise evidently similar in character, was popular in England in the 16th century but afterwards died out. The caber is the heavy trunk of a tree from 16 to 20 ft. long. It is often brought upon the field heavier than can be thrown and then cut to suit the contestants, although sometimes cabers of different sizes are kept, each contestant taking his choice. The toss is made after a run, the caber being set up perpendicularly with the heavy end up by assistants on the spot indicated by the tosser, who sets one foot against it, grasps it with both hands, and, as soon as he feels it properly balanced, gives the word to the assistants to let go their hold. He then raises the caber and gets both hands underneath the lower end. “ A practiced hand, having freed the caber from the ground, and got his hands underneath the end, raises it till the lower end is nearly on a level with his elbows, then advances for several yards, gradually increasing his speed till he is sometimes at a smart run before he gives the toss. Just before doing this he allows the caber to leave his shoulder, and as the heavy top end begins to fall forward, he throws the end he has in his hands upwards with all his strength, and, if successful, after the heavy end strikes the ground the small end continues its upward motion till perpendicular, when it falls forward, and the caber lies in a straight line with the tosser “ (W. M. Smith). The winner is he who tosses with the best and easiest style, according to old Highland traditions, and whose caber falls straightest in a direct line from him. Scoring is as on the face of a clock...with a perfect toss having the caber turned over and facing directly away on a straight line from the tosser (who is the center of the clock face) and the caber pointing to twelve o'clock. A perfect toss in today's vernacular is called "pulling a nooner" !

See W. M. Smith, Athletics and Athletic Sports in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1891).

Weight for Distance
There are two weights that are thrown for distance, 56 lbs. and the 28 lbs. The weights are on a chain. The athlete spins ( as in a discus throw)  before releasing the weight and is scored on distance.

Weight for Height
The 56 lbs. and the 28 lbs. weights are thrown one-handed through uprights, over the athlete's shoulder. Height is important, but the weight must go between the uprights to score. This one is exciting to watch because it always looks like the weight may hit the athlete on the way down!!! 

Putting the Stone
There are two events involving stones. The first is the open stone which is similar to the modern shot put. A 16 pound rounded stone is used.

The second event is the Braemar or standing style. A 22 pound stone is used and it is thrown without a run-up.

The Scottish Hammer
The Scottish hammer is dissimilar to the Olympic wire hammer. The Scottish hammer head is a round metal ball on a rattan cane handle. Two different weight hammers are thrown, the light (16 lbs.) and the heavy (22 lbs.) . The athletes wear blades on the front of their throwing boots and dig them into the ground to have a firm foundation for the effort. With their back facing the direction of the throw, the athlete whirls the hammer around his head, building momentum and then releasing.Origin: a sledge hammer. Later, a dedicated throwing hammer was given a spherical head to lessen damage upon landing.

Sheaf Toss
A 16-pound sheaf is speared with a pitchfork and tossed between uprights, much as a Highland farmer would have done to toss the sheaves into the haymow. Height and accuracy are needed to score.

The Farmers Walk
This event requires brute strength and endurance. The athlete picks up two weights, each weighing 150 pounds and walks around pylons. The winner is the athlete who walks the farthest.

Not all events are done at each Games...It depends on the Athletic Director, the number of athletes and classes, and the time allotted. Regardless, it is the reason to come to the festival, as these lads put in much time to carry on the traditions started three thousand years ago! Cheer them on! 

Classes of Athletes

Athletes are divided into classes based on skill level, gender and age.

Masters: Over the age of fifty, although some in some games the age is forty.

Women: Sort of self-descriptive. As this class grows it will be divided into classes based on skill level and age. At present the Women's class is often divided into A and B skill levels.

Amateur Men are divided into classes based on skill level.

"C" Class: Athletes who are just starting out. They are not required to wear a kilt and are given some extra tutelage by their judge.

"B" Class: Athletes with intermediary skills

"A" Class: Advanced amateurs

Pro Class: Paid professionals

All athletes start out in the "C" class. When their skills have improved sufficiently they can move up to the "B" class. It takes a great deal of practice, strength and ability to move into the "A" class. A truly exceptional athlete can make it all the way up to the Pro level.

The Scottish American Athletic Association (S.A.A.A.) does not currently divide athletes into classes based on size or weight. There are some games around the country that have an "180 pounds and under class." In games of strength such as these, heavier athletes have a decided advantage over lighter athletes. In all most every event the athlete uses his/her body weight to counter-balance the weight of the implement. Strength and skill are a big part of doing well at the games, but having some weight to throw around doesn't hurt.

Many Athletes from an area have organized into teams for training and moral support. The New World Celts Athletics and Team Ocala are two local Florida groups doing just that...See them here at the Sarasota Games.