Highland Games 2011 - Part One

 Saturday, October 15, 2001 - The Stone Mountain Highland Games

Several years ago a friend of mine introduced me to the Highland Games, and I of course introduced LibraryDiva to the games the following year.  And its become a tradition for us to spend a day in Stone Mountain wandering through the booths of imported goodies and Clan/Society displays.  We've watched sheepdog trials, falconry displays, Highland dance competitions, and caber tossing.  We make sheep jokes, stuff ourselves with fish & chips, bridies, and meat pies, and sip cold Irn Bru.  We poke through racks of tartan scarves, blankets, hats and kilt hose and enjoy listening to the pipe and drum bands.

In short...we have a disgustingly good time. 

Preparing to lift the caber...which is 19.6 feet long and weighs roughly 175 pounds.  This event is classified as a "Heavy Athletic" sport.  

Gee...you think??!

 Well, don't just stand there!  Get some forward momentum, son!!

 A look at the crowd.  The striped tents are all retail.  

The booth on the far left is where you can get a $4 draft beer.

The line for beer was considerably longer than the line for food.

 A pipe and drum band warming up...and keeping the crowd entertained.

 Hand woven wool bags made by the Scottish Weaving and Textile Society.

They were really nice...and about $125 a piece.

Sheep!

At the start of the rows of Clan/Society booths.

You will notice that the Clans/Societies are NOT in alphabetical order.

Know why???

Two reasons.

One, some clans have long standing feuds and can not be placed beside each other out of tradition.

And two, because of a clan's allegiance during the 17th century Jacobite Risings.

See that?  You just learned something!  And it didn't even hurt!