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Inverness Highland Games |
| History of the Inverness Highland Games | ||
 Nobody knows when the first Inverness Highland Games were held... 
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The date of the first gathering on the banks of the River Ness by our ancestors has been lost in the mists of time and will forever remain a mystery. What we do know is that back in 1822 the Inverness Courier reported that fundraising was taking place in the town to revive those ancient Games and to give the Capital of the Highlands a Gathering that its townsfolk could be proud of. Thanks to the efforts of those early fundraisers, almost two centuries later, the Inverness Highland Games is firmly established as one of Scotland’s finest Highland Games.
In the early days (1822 – 1938) the Highland Games staged in Inverness were organised by members of the Northern Meeting Society. Following the Second World War, responsibility for staging the event passed to the local community with the Local Council and the newly formed Inverness Harriers taking up the challenge of organising the event. Prominent amongst those involved with ensuring that the tradition of staging a Gathering continued was the late Tom Mackenzie (1913-2005) who officiated at our Games for over half a century. Known as Mr Inverness to many – Tom was a decorated war hero and former Deputy Provost who joined an illustrious list which included the Queen Mother, William Gladstone, Andrew Carnegie and David Lloyd George when he was awarded the freedom of Inverness. |
To commemorate his contribution to our Games, the arrival of our Games Chieftain is now heralded by the playing of “The Inverness Gathering” in memory of Tom Mackenzie.
From 1949 – 2009 our Games was held at Bught Park and in 2010 the Committee decided to move it back home to Northern Meeting Park and combine it with the newly established Inverness Armed Forces Day celebrations. Any doubts about the public reaction to combining the two events quickly evaporated and thousands of spectators spontaneously burst into applause as 7 Pipes and Drums Bands led hundreds of serving and former service men and women and cadets through the streets of Inverness. A wonderful mixture of pageantry and traditional events ensures that the Inverness Highland Games is always one of the highlights of any summer in the Highlands. As usual the heart of our Games will always be our competitors and we hope that you will come and enjoy watching them compete in our traditional Heavy events, our Highland Piping competitions, our Track and Field competitions and our wonderful Highland Dancing competitions. |
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