Tain Highland Gathering has been declared a resounding success with people from “all over the world” attending on what was a glorious summer’s day.
An estimated 2,500 people turned out for the games at the Glenmorangie Ground.
The day started at 11am on Saturday and involved all the traditional events including dancing, piping, track and field, cycling, and the heavy contests.
One of the highlights was a special heavy event where contestants attempted to turn one of the longest and heaviest cabers in the games circuit.
The winner of the Local Heavy event was Jason Young from Inver while Sinclair Patience from Inverness took the Open Heavy.
This year’s honorary chieftain was the well-known local businessman Alastair Kennedy who is the communications director of Global Energy Group.
Mr Kennedy said: “From my perspective it was a big suprise being appointed chieftain but it was a great honour both for myself and my family – it was a wonderful day. It was held on the Glenmorangie Ground and Glenmorangie are great supporters of the games.
“It started of course with the procession down the High Street and followed by the heavy events, which were particularly hotly contested – and one of them was won by a local lad, which was great.”
He added: “I spoke to tourists from all over the world on the day and they all said how much they were enjoying the day – which is wonderful for the town. And again it was a great honour for me.”
Fiona Sutherland, the secretary of the gathering, agreed that it was a wonderful day that ran very smoothly.
She said: “It was a super day with a lot of good competition, a good gate, a good turn out and a lot of visitors from overseas which was great. The weather helped so we were quite relaxed about the whole thing with the day going well.
“We had people from the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Austria, Poland – a lot of different countries. I had a lot of inquiries before the games from abroad.
She added: “It would be hard to say what my highlight was because I enjoy the whole day. Sinclair Patience being back in Tain was great and Kyle Gordon who represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games was there too.”
“The committee certainly seemed very happy with the day, but we’ll be meeting later, in about a couple of weeks to see what went well and what we can improve. And then we will start making arrangements for next year.”
