Highland Games make everyone a wee bit Scottish
Cambridge Highland Games
David Bebee, Record staff
Saturday's "Scottish mist" was the perfect weather for the annual Cambridge Highland Games in Churchill Park.nextplay/pausepre7/7
By Brent Davis
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CAMBRIDGE — Everyone was a wee bit Scottish at Churchill Park on Saturday.
Actually, much of the crowd was a lot Scottish, judging by the number of kilts and tams and sporrans spotted throughout the grounds of the Cambridge Highland Games.
It's been about 300 years or so since Chris MacTaggart's ancestors arrived in North America. No matter.
"I'm still a Scot," said the Waterloo man — and a proud one at that, sporting a kilt, a "Got haggis?" T-shirt and tattoos of his family crest and coat of arms on either bicep.
Even his 22-month-old son Lachlan was decked out in a little Nova Scotia tartan kilt.
"It's just awesome," MacTaggart said, as pipe bands warmed up nearby. "Any time you can hear bagpipes, it's all good."
Over at the heavy events area, Barry and Tina Nelson of Sarnia cheered as athletes hurled a seven-kilogram (16-pound) hammer across the field.
"It's the large men in skirts she likes," laughed Barry.
"Throwin' telephone poles," added Tina.
It was the couple's first visit to the Cambridge games, now in their 39th year. They'd also attended the traditional céilidh, a social gathering on Friday night with music and dancing.
Under Saturday's grey, drizzly skies — an appropriate "Scottish mist," said event chair Duncaun McLeod — visitors could also watch Highland dance competitions and sheep dog demonstrations, learn more about their clan history and visit with a pair of mop-topped Highland cattle from Comolea Farms in Grand Valley.
The area's Scottish heritage — reflected in place names like Ayr, Crosshill, New Dundee and North Dumfries — helps to draw thousands of people every year, McLeod said.
"That brings people back," he said.
This year's event boasted 33 pipe bands from across Ontario and as far as Chicago and Cleveland — the most bands the event has seen.
"It's really a banner year," McLeod said.
In five grades or divisions, the bands compete for points on the Highland games circuit.
When the massed bands perform together, "it is a spectacular show," he said.
McLeod estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 people would come through the gates on Saturday.
"Considering the way the weather started today, it's very good," he said. "The crowd seems to be getting a bit bigger each year."
At the Clan Donald booth, Alexander McIlwraith and James McDonald were happy to share information about one of the largest Scottish clans.
People are eager to learn about their roots, said McIlwraith, a first-generation Canadian with many relatives back home.
"This is the one thing that I have that I know connects us," he said.
"I think it's kind of innate in everybody to want to know who they are," added McDonald.
bdavis@therecord.com
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