A View in a Kilt: The Unification and Discovery of Heritage Fairs

In the summer of 2019, the Seattle Highland Games Association hosted its most recent Scottish Highland Games season. The COVID shutdowns have since caused the cancellation of two consecutive years of games. That being said, I suppose I was lucky that I got the chance to attend when I did. The Highland Games event was one of my highlights of that summer, even if I spent most of my time at the heritage tent, listening to lectures and learning all about Scottish history and culture. I still managed to spend an ample amount of time watching the marching pipe bands, perusing the many sales tents staked around the grounds, attending ceilidhs, and watching at least one or two sporting events from the sidelines. The unique quality of the Scottish Highland Games is that its goal includes a festival-type atmosphere in which people can enjoy the culture that originally spawned the games.

The Highland Games traditions--established in North America as far back as the 1800s--were founded with two primary goals: to host games from the Scottish native land and also to engage in the handing off of traditions and heritage to the next generation and to other Americans. Emily Ann Donaldson undertook a project in the 1980s--during a second American resurgence of the Highland Games--to record the history of the games and catalog the events in her own book. She records that, following the Highland Clearances and Act of Proscription that descended upon the Scottish people as a result of the 1745 uprising under Charles Stuart, many of the cultural traditions and objects of Scotland were outlawed. This ban included the participation in the Games, which had originated likely as far back as the 11th century. Eventually, a Celtic renaissance swept through the academy during the 19th century, during which oral tradition and language were brought in for academic study. The games, however, began to be slowly reintroduced immediately following the Repeal Proclamation in 1782. Games in Scotland have only since been paused during World War I and World War II. In America, the Games were introduced by Scots in New York in 1836 who sought to pass along the traditions of their homeland to the Scottish descendants in the United States. After these first games, Scottish heritage associations sprung up around the country all of which were founded on the two ideas of organizing Scottish Highland Games events and passing on Scottish culture and values. Highland Games were also held in many other countries Scots emigrated to, including Canada and Australia.

At the height of the first Scottish Games hype in the 19th century, track and field events as we know them now became popular as an off-shoot of this athletic movement that the Scottish heritage societies helped to begin. The events typically associated with track and field were originally a huge part of the sporting events at the Scottish Games, in many of their later years often overtaking the heavy events (those events most often associated with the niche of Scotland). Heavy events include such feats of strength as the stone throw, weight throws, hammer throws, weight toss, sheaf toss, and most widely recognized caber toss (more often referred to as guys throwing a telephone pole). Because of the popularity of the other track and field events other groups began holding purely track and field events with the rise of American sporting events in the late part of the 19th century. As these other groups began to take over the mantle of track and field, the Scottish Games were now overlooked in favor of these other sports associations. This led to the rapid decline of 19th century Scottish Highland Games. Following World War I, however, Scottish Games made a slow comeback, again surging in popularity in the 1970s with the first and most famous Highland Clan gathering in the southern United States at Grandfather Mountain in Linville, North Carolina, which rapidly became the most looked-forward-to Highland Games event in the country in following years. Since its resurgence, the Games tend to focus largely on the more traditionally Scotland-exclusive events, the heavy events and other cultural events. Therefore, many people are not aware of its long tradition with contributing to the American athletic surge at the end of the 1800s; still, its mark has been left with the creation of some of the largest American sporting events in our modern sporting industry.

Within the Scottish subculture in America, there is a continued sense of unity and community because of events like these. Outside curiosity from those without Scottish heritage is more than welcome, and many are encouraged to come and learn about the heritage of just a small slice of the American pie. During my experience, I got to see Scotland's culture passed on, just as many original charters hoped to do. The many panels and lectures given in the heritage tent were directed to teach about the history of modern Scotland, the impact of Scottish political and enlightenment thinking on the settlement and establishment of America and modern science, the sharing of the Scottish Gaelic language, and the sharing of the traditional mythology and literature of Scotland. Many of these lectures were given by representatives of specific tents stationed around the fair, including a group specifically geared toward learning Gaelic and a second-generation Scottish weaponry sales tent. We got the chance to see and learn about the different types of traditional Scottish weaponry and were even shown real examples of the two variations of the famous Scottish Claymore. While genealogy is also a strong undercurrent of the entire proceedings, one need not be Scottish by heritage to attend. Between the scholarly nature of the heritage tent, giving insight into the Scottish impact on the United States, and the look back over Scottish values and literary tradition, one gets the chance to see the impact of this one culture among many on the larger American tradition. The sharing of a common heritage helps to strengthen the Scottish American people, but the added emphasis of how they have contributed to the United States as it now exists also shows a connection to the larger whole.

Differences in hereditary culture need not divide us when there is so much to learn about and partake in from the massive variety of cultures that have come to the United States over the years. As with the first wave of Scottish heritage fairs so long ago and their introduction of track and field to the mainstream, other cultures contribute to the vast array of learning, cultural exposure and exchange, and incorporation into the larger whole of the culture of America that has taken place these past 200 years. We can also see the origination of some of the ideas and cultural traditions of the United States the more we learn about those who have helped to contribute to the shaping of our nation. When we get the chance to participate in the same culture, we can grow together as a community and find more common ground to unite us. I look forward to the next time I get to attend a Highland Games or any other cultural heritage event, as learning about the heritage of a neighbor--or even more getting the chance to partake in it--will help me not only grow in the appreciation of history (shared or not) but will help me to find the common values and culture that unites us as a country and as human beings.

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Donaldson, Emily Ann. The Scottish Highland Games in America. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., 1986.

Seattle Scottish Highland Games Association. Seattle, Washington: Seattle Scottish Highland Games, 2021. https://www.sshga.org/.