Scottish rites

I had seen the signs about the Kelso Highlander Festival that was taking place at Tam O'Shanter park over the weekend. As the park is only a little over a half-mile down the levee from where we are staying, we decided to walk over and take in the festivities. There were tents set up for the "Clans", food booths, vendors, entertainment venue, etc.

We got to see male and female athletes throw a ball on a chain. The women's ball weight was 28 pounds while the men threw 56 pound balls. Below is one of the women athletes throwing the ball. She was quite petite but way strong. The professional athletes had shoes with these four inch blades that they dug in to the dirt to keep their feet stationary that made quite the difference in the distance reached. One of the male athletes threw the ball 113 feet.

We then got to watch the athletes throw a 28 pound (women) or 56 pound (men) weight over a horizontal bar for height. Each athlete got three chances to make it over the horizontal bar at each height. Those that did make it over then had another foot added to the horizontal bar. The gentlemen below made it to 16 feet (look at the room to spare!) . The winning woman made it to 14 feet.

Next up was the caber toss. The women's pole was 12 feet long while the men's was 16 feet. The idea is to toss the caber end over end staying as straight to the tosser as possible. A perfect toss was 12 o'clock and was scored accordingly to its lie. You could tell the experienced ones from the rookies just by how they balanced the caber.
Kilts were definitely the attire for the day. Don't know about these guys but the athletes all wore shorts under their kilts. Here is a picture of the color guard.
Here is the parade of the clans along with the color guard and pipe band.
Even the Scottish Terriers get in on it . . . notice their kilts.
This guy was dressed to the hilt. He looked like something out of the past and very authentic.

We also took in some of the dance competition. Unless it is your kid up there, it gets old pretty quick. Still, it is nice to see that the youth is embracing their heritage. We did partake of some Scottish food. Me, a wrapped sausage while John had a meat pie. Neither was bad just rather bland for our tastes. We ate lunch while listening to a band from California. It was a fun atmosphere and we were glad that we took the time to enjoy it. We finally head home around 4 p.m.