Highland Games and Glencoe (08-12-19)

All 4 of us enjoy Highland Games, and were definitely excited, as we headed to the Abernethy Highland Games in Nethybridge.






Along the way: We stopped at the Glen Morangie distillery. This is one of Mike and Julie's favorite Whiskies.  So sad that it was 11 am and we were driving- they settled for buying some new Glencairn whisky glasses.

Although we are no strangers to Highland Games, for Paul and I, these were the first we have been to in Scotland. Here there are games almost every week in the summer.

Most are small, local games, a few are bigger and last more than one day. This was a relatively small one, but extremely well done, and a lot of fun.








Our rooms were at the historic Nethybridge Hotel, built in the late 1800s. The hotel let us park our cars in the lot, even though it was only 10 in the morning.  From there we could easily walk to the games.

 One of the dancers was sitting next to us, with her dad, so I chatted with them a bit, and enjoyed watching her compete.












The outer track hosted numerous races, for people of all ages.

In addition to the piping and drumming competitions, there were, of course, the traditional heavy weight competitions. 

 One of the favorites  is the Caber toss.The athlete walks forward, holding what is essentially a telephone pole. When he has it balanced, he throws it.

 The first requirement is that the pole has to flip, end over end.  If it does, the goal is to get it to fall as close to straight as possible. In other words, using a clock analogy, if the athlete is standing at 6 O'clock, he wants the caber to fall at 12 O'clock.

Whoever gets the closest, wins. 

A new world record was set when Colin Dunbar, from the U.S., tossed a 56 lb weight 17.5 feet in the air. Yikes.

Once the games were over, some of the pipe bands marched to the hotel, and set up in the garden, where they played several traditional Scottish songs before disbanding.

From Nethybridge, our next destination was the historic town of Glencoe.

These days, Glencoe is a haven for hikers, however, it has a very sad history.  This area was inhabited by the MacDonald clan in 1692 when King William lll offered a pardon to all who had fought against him.  

The MacDonalds were delayed in swearing their allegiance and missed the deadline.  In February, they were housing a group of soldiers, including many of the Campbell clan.  After 10 days, on the night of February 12, the Campbells received an order from the King to kill all MacDonalds under the age of 70. In the middle of the night, they started the slaughter. While many escaped into the night, most of those died of exposure. 

On a more fun note, that first night Julie and I went for a short walk, and ended at the site of a Harry Potter filming location- Hagrid's Hut.

With one day to hike, Paul and I chose the Lost Valley Trail.

For several miles we hiked along numerous waterfalls, climbing up about 900 feet of elevation.

At the end, our reward was a view of the Lost Valley....

On our non-hiking day, we explored the nearby town of Kinlochleven.  The drive to get there was pretty spectacular.....

The town itself is picturesque and owes it's beginnings to the aluminum industry,  of all things.

In the early 1900s, because of the availability of water and hydro power, an aluminum company built a smelter here, and what was a place with two hunting lodges, grew to a town of thousands. It is still a decent size town, known for it's climbing, and winter sports.

Interestingly, during World War I, prisoners of war helped build the infrastructure of the town, and were housed with the locals.

On our final day, I took a day off, and Paul went exploring with Mike and Julie..