What's on in the area

Cowal Highland Gathering

Aug 2010 (annual)

Cost: Thu £3; children £1;
Fri £5; children £1
Sat £8; children £2

Hours: Thu 10am; Fri & Sat 9am

The Cowal Highland Gathering is one of the oldest and certainly one of the most spectacular Highland Games, having first been held in 1894. Spilling over onto two days at Dunoon Stadium, the event attracts around 3000 competitors and crowds of over 20,000.

The Gathering hosts the World Highland Dancing Championships and also the Cowal Pipe Band Championships, with over 150 bands - one of the biggest and most prestigious contests of its type. All the other events traditionally associated with Highland Games feature: solo piping, shinty, track and heavy events all help draw the spectators, and those with a more artistic bent can enjoy the fleet-footed bravura of traditional Scottish dancing.

The "heavy" events - shot-putting, hammer-throwing and caber-tossing - feature large men in tartan sweating profusely as they hurl large objects as far as they can. For teams of heavies there is a five-a-side tug-of-war competition.

The Cowal Gathering has an extra dimension to the "heavy" events - in the form of the Cowal Stone. The Gathering's Convenor spent many years combing the beaches of the Clyde for a suitable stone for a different "putting" competition. The resultant find was a stone weighing in at around 32lb, and the Cowal Stone putting competition is unique to these games.

Dunoon Stadium