Author Topic: 30th Annual Scotland Highland Festival  (Read 7125 times)

Stirling Thompson

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30th Annual Scotland Highland Festival
« on: October 10, 2017, 11:23:10 AM »
My final games of the 2017 season was at the 30th Annual Scotland Highland Festival held at the Edward Waldo Homestead in Scotland CT on Sunday October 8, 2017. These games have always been one of my favorites because its close to home and was the first games I ever did and despite the weather it still is. On Friday, Dottie and I drove up to Farmington ME and picked up our grandson Sean and brought him back to Massachusetts to visit for a week and he came with us to the games to help with the setup.

Sean came to help out. The Edward Waldo Homestead is in the background.

The weather this year (and last) was not very cooperative starting off overcast and windy and just went downhill from there. Rain, heavy at times, lasted most of the morning and ended up soaking most of my display. The rain finally stopped shortly before noon and although it was still damp we managed to get through the opening ceremonies without more rain. The remainder of the day was rain free and surprisingly the turnout, though lighter than usual, was fairly steady throughout the day. Chapman Thompson and his crew showed up marched with us in the Parade of Clans.

Chapman Thompson and family helped make a good showing in the Parade of Clans.

I pretty much stayed at the tent all day so Dottie and Sean wandered the grounds and took some nice pictures of the competitions and demonstrations. Athletics are always popular as is the dancing and band competition. The highland cattle are always nice to see and this year's highlight was the 4 day old calf.

Athletic competitions are always popular.


Highland cattle, Stoay sheep and the sheepdog demoonstration are lots of fun.


There was sword fighting demos and the Historic Highlanders will tell you all about life in the good old days.

 
After competing the pipe bands would march through the Clan Village area.

Despite the weather there were only a couple of clans that failed to answer the roll and the Clan Village was well populated. We had Clan Donald and Clan Elliot for neighbors and Clan Donald serenaded us with their piper at various times of the day. On a sadder note I said goodbye to Stu Greenlaw of Clan Stewart. Stu has been the rep for as long as I've been doing the games but he has decided to retire to South Carolina and as of this moment no one has stepped forward to take up the mantle of Clan Stewart rep. Stu will be missed.

Some views of the village area.

I guess that about wraps up the 2017 games season for me here in New England. I'm looking forward to next year and hoping I can get back to the games I missed this year, Rhode Island, Glasgow Lands and Quechee, and maybe sneak in a new one so we can get back together with Alan and Heidi. Central NY looks promising but we'll have to wait and see. Any way the rest of the pics from Scotland CT are here: https://postimg.org/gallery/1trflti0c/
Semper Fidelis! Semper Familia!
Stu