One Hundred Thousand Welcomes
Ceud Mile Failte
Welcome to the website of Crieff Highland Games which have been held here in Crieff, Perthshire almost every year since 1870.
In these pages we have published information about our annual Games and Highland Sports.
We hope you enjoy our website and that you will be able to come along and enjoy the Crieff Highland
Games themselves

Probably the oldest of the heavyweight sports and the easiest for young lads to take-up - all they needed was a smooth stone from the river bed.
Each different Gathering had its own such stone which might vary in weight between 13lbs (5.9kgs) as at Tomintoul, and 28lbs (12.7kgs) as at Glen Isla and Braemar.
This made comparison of distance records between the various Highland games, very difficult indeed.
Nowadays the old stones tend to have been replaced at most gatherings by a standardised iron sphere weighing either 16lbs (7.26kgs) or 22lbs (10kgs).
The weight or shot is thrown with one hand only from in front of the shoulders. A run not exceeding 7ft 6ins (2.3m) is allowed up to the trig which is a length of wood 4ft 6ins
(1.37m) long and six inches ( 15cms) high.
Crieff 2000
Starkey's Shot
Sergeant Major Robert Starkey was one of the best known heavyweight athletes during the 1920s and
30s and in 1924 was coach to the British team for the Paris Olympics. That team included such famous figures as Harald Abrahams and Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire fame and the American team included swimmer Johnny Weissmuller - Tarzan .
Bob Starkey became very friendly with Clarence Houser - the American shot-putter who won the gold medal for that event. Houser presented Starkey with the solid brass shot with which he had won the event and Starkey presented it to Crieff Highland Gathering. The shot can be seen at the Visitors' tent each year
Tossing the caber is easily the most recognisable trademark of Scottish
Highland games and is one of the most spectacular of the heavy events.
The origins of caber tossing are unknown although it has been suggested that it was developed by foresters for throwing tree trunks into the river. It would be difficult to devise a more physically demanding method of moving felled timber and the more likely explanation is that it was a sport amongst foresters that became part of the traditional Highland Gathering events.
The dimensions of a caber - or cabar in Gaelic - can vary enormously but the norm weighs about 150lbs (68kgs), is 18 feet (5.5m) long and about 9 inches
(23cms) thick at one end, tapering to about 5 inches (l3cms) at the other.
The caber used at Crieff for the Scottish Heavyweight Championship each year weighs over 150lbs (70kgs) and is 17ft 4ins (5.3m) long. The Braemar caber is only 132lIbs (59.9kgs) in weight but is 19ft 9ins (6m) in length. The largest caber recorded in the Guinness Book of records is 25ft (7.62m) and
280lbs (127kg).
Crieff 2000.
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Games organisers strive for consistency in the weight of their caber and because timber dries out and becomes lighter, they will often soak the caber in a convenient loch for some days before their annual games or, bore holes in it and fill them with molten lead!
Contrary to popular belief, the caber is not thrown for distance but for style. The games officials will set the caber on its end with the thickest portion in the air. The athlete rests the caber against his shoulder and, clasping his arms around it, performs the difficult task of lifting it up off the ground whilst keeping it perfectly balanced. When he's achieved that, he will give it a quick flick up and move his hands under the narrow end. He's now ready to throw it.
The competition is judged with the aid of an imaginary clock-face on the ground spread out flat in front of the thrower with him facing the 12 o'clock position. That invisible clock-face keeps pace with him as he runs and when he has reached the desired speed he will stop abruptly at what becomes the 6 o' clock position and heave the caber up so that its heavy end lands in the middle of the clock and the whole caber turns right over, ending up with the narrow end pointing exactly towards the 12 o'clock position.
Quite frequently none of the competitors will achieve the exact 12 o'clock position and the prizes will be given for the throw that is nearest to the ideal. In some games, if the caber was not thrown, an oldfashioned two-handed, crosscut saw would be brought on and the heavies would saw an inch off the caber until one of them threw it.
Throwing the weight is divided into two different events: throwing it for distance and throwing it for height.
For Distance
Said to be one of the most graceful of heavyweight events. There are two standard weights - the commonest being 28lbs (12.7kgs). The weight consists of a 28lb ball, chain and handle, the overall length of which must not exceed 18 inches (0. 45m).
In simple terms the thrower grasps the weight in one hand, spins round and throws it as far as possible. More accurately, the thrower has a distance of nine feet (2.7m) between a peg and a trig.
Grasping the weight and facing the trig, he stands beside that peg and swings the weight to the side and then round behind him. He's now ready to start his throw which consists of three waltzing turns, gathering momentum on each. On the third pirouette and at exactly the right moment, he heaves the weight as far as he can. A protective cage extends around the sides and rear of the thrower to safeguard the public!
In some amateur games, throwers will use both hands to hold the weight but that is the method used for the Olympic hammer and not the Scots 28lb weight.
For Height
For this event the commonest weight is a standard commercial 56Ib
(24.5kgs) box weight with a ring attached. As in the high jump, a bar is raised between two posts and each contestant has up to three attempts at each height to which the bar is raised.
Many heavyweights seem to pride themselves in the apparently nonchalant way that they approach this event: frequently the entrant will saunter up to the weight - which is lying underneath the bar - and without even a glance upwards will suddenly heave the weight up with one hand where it soars through the air and thuds back down into the ground only inches from the thrower.
The air of nonchalance is very deceptive however since the strength and skill needed are enormous. Past heavyweight competitor Charlie Allan compares the feat to that of throwing a seven-year old boy over a double-decker bus -
Will it . . . won't it?
Arthur Rowe at the
1963 Crieff Games

with one hand!
You will notice that the stewards for this event always have a plentiful supply of bars - they are frequently snapped when the weight falls back down onto them.
The origins of throwing the hammer have never been in doubt. Wherever hammers were used - blacksmiths, quarries or farms - a diversionary pastime would be throwing the utilitarian wooden-shafted sledgehammer. The sport's long history can be judged by the following extract quoted by author David
Webster from an 1826 games poster:
Throwers used to gain great momentum - and distance - by turning the body rapidly to build up speed before releasing the hammer. Instances were very common of throwers losing their grip on the shaft or of releasing it a little too late with the hammer flying over or, even worse into the crowds. This soon brought about a ban on that method!
The old hammer has been replaced by an iron sphere on a rotan or male bamboo shaft, measuring 4ft 2ins
(1.27m) and weighting either 16lbs (7.3kgs) or 22lbs ( 10kgs).
The thrower stands with his back to the trig (the throwing mark), swings the hammer round his head to gather momentum and then releases it over his shoulder.
The event certainly needs exeellent timing and whilst the conventional image of a hammer thrower is of a
Herculean figure, some past record breakers have been short and slight which proves that knack is very much a secret of success.
Another prime requirement is a mcenxe gnp ann uxe weignt urters, the throwers will improve theirs by the use of resin on their hands. One of the best known and most graceful of hammer throwers, who smashed many a record here in Crieff, was the heavyweight Bill Anderson, a frequent judge at the Crieff Games.
"The great masters of the bagpipes can make the pipes convey nearly every human emotion, as though the pipes themselves were speaking. Indeed it was at one time widely believed that the masters actually made the pipes talk, and within Iiving memory in the more remote parts of the Western Isles, this view was accepted. This centuries old belief can be traced to the fact that in the 16th & 17th centuries, the pipers took over the duties of the harpists. It was the piper's duty to compose music to commemorate every important occasion and we have music handed down to us which ranges from the mournful to the exultant. Some love the wild marches which conjure up the march of the clansmen as they stride to battle, others prefer a gay air, probably written in honour of a famous wedding. You may hate the mournful wail of a lament for a fallen chieftain but whatever your reaction to the different types of music it is most unlikely that the strains of the great Highland bagpipe will leave you indifferent."
David Webster in his book Scottish Highland Games.

Visitors to Highland Gatherings will invariably see and hear two types of competition piping - solo piping and that of the large Pipe Bands. At the Crieff Games you will experience up to 30 such bands from various corners of the globe.
Comrie Pipe Band, Crieff Games 2000
In the competitions, bands play a medley of marches, strathspeys and reels for between three and nine minutes, dependent upon the grade in which they are competing. In solo piping the most valuable prizes are usually for Piobaireachd (pronounced peebroch and in writing, Anglicised to pibroch) which although meaning simply pipe music, has come to be applied to the classical music of the bagpipes - the great music or in GaeliPage 16c ceol mor , (pronounced keyall more).
Lighter music, for dancing or marching is known as ceol aotrom or ceol beag but it is for the
Piobaireachd that competitors and connoisseurs alike will travel the globe.
Like much classical music, it consists of themes with variations and since each Piobaireachd can last up to 15 or 20 minutes, it demands considerable feats of memory as well as playing skill.
The composers of the golden age, including the famous McCrimmons, taught their pupils by word of mouth and chanting - canntaireachd , which was the form in which these compositions were first written down. Unlike the composers of other types of classical music they left no instructions about how the tunes should be played including whether they should be fast or slow.
A Piobaireachd starts with the ground or basic theme and is developed in more and more complex variations until the climax when the simple ground is repeated as a finale. In normal Piobaireachd competitions, the player has to submit three tunes and the judges select one of these tunes to be played. Thus the Piobaireachd competition is a test, not only of piping skills but of memory and concentration.
What judges are looking for is not only good technical execution in fingering and in the playing of the grace notes, but a well-tuned and balanced instrument. They are also judging on whether the player seems to convey what they believe to be the emotional expression required by the chosen tune.
Whilst the Great Highland Bagpipe was often regarded as an instrument of war with its battle tunes, gatherings and salutes, much of the repertoire consists of Laments. With an instrument on which one cannot vary the pitch, cannot play more loudly or softly, it is not easy to express pathos but some of our best players, playing some of our most famous laments, accomplish this with great skill.
In the old days, pipers would sometimes say, not that a man had won a competition but that he had pleased the judges. This acknowledges the fact that good interpretation is of the essence of rine
Piobaireachd playing.
The History of the Pipes
With its beginnings in ancient Egypt, the bagpipe is one of the oldest instruments played by man. The primitive form of today's pipes was played by the Greeks and Romans and variations of the instrument spread throughout Europe.
By the 18th century however, population centres had grown in size, outdoor entertainment had decreased and music had become more of an indoor pursuit with the noisy bagpipes being replaced

by the forerunners of today's much quieter musical instruments.
In Scotland however, the bagpipe's martial music found a permanent home. Clan chiefs had their own pipers who held a very high position in the clan hierarchy and frequently had their own ghillie to carry the pipes.
The position of clan piper was often hereditary and the most famous of these was that of the
MacCrimmon family in Skye who were the hereditary pipers to the Macleods of Dunvegan - who have inhabited Dunvegan castle since 1255. It is generally accepted that the Macleods gifted lands at
Borreraig to the MacCrimmons around the end of the 16th century where they established their piping school at one end of a long two-storied farmhouse. It is said that in that building and the surrounding caves and hollows, some of the world's finest pipe music was composed. Caves and hollows were the equivalent to today's tape recorder - the piper could hear his own work.
After the unsuccessful rising of 1745, the bagpipe was considered an instrument of war and its playing in Scotland was forbidden. The piping colleges were broken up and the hereditary families of pipers were scattered.
Having had a taste of the considerable martial instincts of the Scots, the British government set about harnessing that military potential and commenced raising Scottish regiments. In the infantry regiments the English fife and drum (the fife was a small, shrill flute) were replaced by the pipe and drum and there is no doubt that it was that fact which was largely responsible, not only for the continued popularity of the bagpipe, but also for its steady growth throughout the world wherever Scottish regiments served.
There has always been a great interdependence between pipe and fiddle music with each borrowing from the other's repertoire for dancing. More recent developments include combining pipe bands with military bands and the introduction of the bagpipe into folk groups with great effect - in common with much folk music, pipe music uses a pentatonic scale (consisting of five notes). Even more modern, has been the very innovative combination of the bagpipe with African tribal drums called Afro
Caledonian which produces a most unusual and rhythmic result.
Unique to Scotland
Of the multitude of bagpipes in the world today, the Great
Highland Bagpipe is unique to Scotland and probably the best known and certainly the most frequently played. This is undoubtedly the result of expatriate Scots spreading the word and the very great influence of the colourful displays mounted by the Scottish Regiments serving in all corners of the globe.
The bagpipe is played by firstly blowing air through the blowpipe into the sheepskin or cowhide bag which incorporates a non-return valve. The bag is then squeezed between the piper's arm and side to force air out through the chanter and drones.
A young competitor at the 1926 gathering
The chanter is the part of the instrument on which the melody is played. Chanters have a double reed but unlike other reed instruments, the player cannot tongue the reed to produce special effects and he must rely on playing grace notes to accent and embellish the tune. A grace note is a momentary chirping sound in front of a note and is indicated on a music sheet by having three short tails on the shaft of the note.
The Great Highland Bagpipe is one of the few in the world to have three single-reed drones, each producing - as their name suggests a different but continuous note which act as a background to the melody.

At Crieff Highland Games the track events take place: Running, Cycling, Jumping and and of course
Tug-o-War.
No event at Highland games encompasses such verve, enthusiasm and colour as Highland Dancing and what better sight and sound can there be that encapsulates the very essence of Scotland than the bagpipes accompanying a kilted dancer, swaying and pirouetting to traditional airs!
Highland Dancing is regarded as being one of the most sophisticated forms of national dancing in the world and whilst it is almost impossible for dance historians to separate fact from fiction when researching the more popular Scottish dances, the following explanations have gained great currency, probably because they are imaginative and picturesque stories.
Traditionally, dancing competitions included just four standard dances - The Sword Dance, The Seann
Triubhas, The Reel of Tulloch and The Highland Fling , but in 1986 a couple of imports were added to the repertoire - The Sailor's Hornpipe and The Irish Jig .
The Sword Dance
Gille Calum or Gille Chaluim .
Said to have originated in 1054 when King Malcolm Canmore clashed in battle near Dunsinane with one of Macbeth's chiefs. Having slain his opponent, Malcolm crossed his claymore with that of his opponent to make the sign of the cross and danced in exultation over them. After this time, it is said, clansmen would cross their swords prior to battle and if they could complete the war dance without touching the swords, it signified that they would be the victors.
The Sean Triubhas
Said to reflect the highlander's desire to shake off the hated Sassenach trousers that Scots were forced to wear when the kilt was prohibited after the 1745 rebellion. The dance is performed in the then much-hated triubhas (pronounced trews) and the slow tempo shows the dancer's disgust. The quicker steps show either the dancer's attempts to shake off the offending garment, or the pleasure at the rescinding of the ban in 1782. The very great French influence on Scottish culture is shown by the embellishments such as pirouettes and the final French-style entrechat .
The Reel of Tulloch
Originated in the north east village of Tulloch one winter morning long ago when the minister was late in arriving. The assembled congregation waiting outside the church doors, stamped their feet and clapped their hands to keep warm and as someone began to whistle a Highland air, the movements

developed into a lively dance.
The Highland Fling
Together with the Sword Dance, the Highland Fling is probably the most famous of Scottish dances.
Thought to have originated in about 1790, legend has it that an old shepherd was giving chanter lessons to his grandson on a hillside when he saw a stag rearing and wheeling in the near distance.
He asked the boy if he could imitate the stag's dance which he did, and hence the steps and the graceful curve of the arms and hands depicting the stag's antlers. The dance is performed on the same spot throughout and this is held to be because the clansmen of old danced it on their targe
(leather-covered, studded shield). Another more prosaic explanation is that the dance evolved as a solo performance of the reel.