Basics - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 35

music, games and dance of the Highlands; indeed,
various royals still attend the Games at Braemar.
Apart from Braemar , the most famous games
take place at Oban and Cowal , but the smaller
events are often more fun - like a sort of Highland
version of a school sports day. There's money to be
won, too, so the Games are usually pretty compe-
titive. The most distinctive events are known as
the “heavies” - tossing the caber (pronounced
“kabber”), putting the stone, and tossing the weight
over the bar - all of which require prodigious
strength and skill, and the wearing of a kilt. Tossing
the caber is the most spectacular, when the athlete
must lift an entire tree trunk up, cupping it in his
hands, before running with it and attempting to
heave it end over end. Just as important as the
sporting events are the piping competitions -
for individuals and bands - and dancing competi-
tions, where you'll see girls as young as 3 tripping
the quick, intricate steps of dances such as the
Highland Fling.

However, in 1893, the Camanachd Association -
the Gaelic word for shinty is camanachd - was set
up to formalize the rules, and the first Camanachd
Cup Final was held in Inverness in 1896. Today,
shinty is still fairly close to its Gaelic roots, like the
Irish game of hurling, with each team having twelve
players including a goalkeeper and each goal
counting for a point. The game, which bears
similarities to an undisciplined version of hockey,
isn't for the faint-hearted; it's played at a furious
pace, with sticks - called camans or cammocks -
flying alarmingly in all directions. Support is enthu-
siastic and vocal, and if you're in the Highlands
during the season, which runs from March to
October, it's well worth trying to catch a match:
check with tourist o ces or the local paper, or go
to W shinty.com.

Curling

The one winter sport which enjoys a strong Scottish
identity is curling ( W royalcaledoniancurlingclub
.org), occasionally still played on a frozen outdoor
rink, or “pond”, though most commonly these days
seen at indoor ice rinks. The game, which involves
gently sliding smooth-bottomed 18kg discs of
granite called “stones” across the ice towards a
target circle, is said to have been invented in
Scotland, although its earliest representation is in a
sixteenth-century Flemish painting. Played by two
teams of four, it's a highly tactical and skilful sport,
enlivened by team members using brushes to
sweep the ice furiously in front of a moving stone
to help it travel further and straighter. If you're inter-
ested in seeing curling being played, go along to
the ice rink in places such as Perth, Pitlochry or
Inverness on a winter evening.

Football

While football (soccer) is far and away Scotland's
most popular spectator sport, its popularity in the
Highlands and Islands is a little muted in compa-
rison to the game's following in the Central Belt of
the country. The strength of the Highland League
( W highlandfootballleague.com) was, however,
recognized in the mid-1990s with the inclusion of
Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Ross County in the
Scottish Leagues. Inverness Caledonian Thistle have
subsequently risen to Scotland's top division, the
Scottish Premiership, and as a result the Caledonian
Stadium on the shores of the Moray Firth regularly
hosts the multinational stars of Glasgow's and
Edinburgh's top teams. The season begins in early
August and ends in mid-May, with most matches
taking place on Saturday afternoons at 3pm, and
also often on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday
evenings. Tickets for Scottish League games cost
around £25, but less for Highland League fixtures.

Outdoor activities
Scotland boasts a landscape that,
weather conditions apart, is extremely
attractive for outdoor pursuits at all
levels of fitness and ambition, and legis-
lation enacted by the Scottish Parliament
has ensured a right of access to hills,
mountains, lochs and rivers. Within
striking distance of its cities are two
national parks, remote wilderness areas
and vast stretches of glens and moorland,
while sea-kayakers, sailors and surfers
can enjoy excellent conditions along the
rugged but beautiful coastline.

Shinty

Played throughout Scotland but with particular
strongholds in the West Highlands and Strathspey,
the game of shinty (the Gaelic sinteag means
“leap”) arrived from Ireland around 1500 years ago.
Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, it
was played on an informal basis and teams from
neighbouring villages had to come to an agree-
ment about rules before matches could begin.