St Ronan's Border Games, Innerleithen
Innerleithen's St Ronan's Games combine the ancient Cleikum ceremony on the Friday evening, in which evil is symbolically hooked out of the town, with a full Highland games programme on the Saturday.
A compact Borders mill town that punches above its weight: Robert Smail's printing works, a Victorian spa, independent cafes and the gravity of Traquair House just down the road give a visitor more than enough to fill a purposeful half-day, and the mountain-biking crowd keeps the place from feeling merely nostalgic.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Innerleithen, Scottish Borders.
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"Lauder's Common Riding is one of the most intimate of the Borders festivals, with a mounted Cornet leading riders along the ancient marches of this small market town on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills."
Lauder Common Riding
"Coldstream's civic week climaxes with the Coldstreamer leading a mounted rideout to Flodden Field, honouring the Borderers who fell in the 1513 battle in one of the most moving riding ceremonies in Scotland."
Coldstream Civic Week
"The sport's ultimate contest held only every three years in the region widely considered the birthplace of the Border Collie, where handlers from across the world gather at Huntington Farm for five extraordinary days."
World Sheepdog Trials
"Twice a year the entire town of Jedburgh divides into Uppies and Doonies to contest a football match with no fixed rules, no referee and no pitch boundaries through the streets and closes of the town, a tradition said to derive from the use of an English soldier's head after a medieval border battle."
Jedburgh Ba' Game
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Cornet and mounted supporters ride the marches to drum and fife, commemorating a 1514 skirmish."
Hawick Common Riding
"Hundreds of riders follow the standard bearer round the burgh boundaries in the oldest of the Borders common ridings."
Selkirk Common Riding
"Caber-tossing and Highland dancing come to the Alice Littler Memorial Park in the heart of Speyside whisky country."
Aberlour Strathspey Highland Games
"Athletes race up Sron a'Chlachain in a punishing hill race while pipers march over the Falls of Dochart bridge at the western end of Loch Tay."
Killin Highland Games
"Massed pipe bands lead the chieftain's parade from the Bridge Hotel to Couper Park in this small fishing village on the far northeast coast."
Helmsdale and District Highland Games
"The last free games in the Highlands, where Games Day on the seaside Links feels like New Year, opened by Lord Cawdor himself."
Nairn Highland Games
"Scotland's premier sheepdog competition over four days at Letham Farm in the Ochil Hills, where the nation's finest handlers qualify for the International and the once-every-three-years World Trial."
Scottish National Sheepdog Trials
"Heavy events, wrestling and a 10K road race come to The Stadium in the genteel Victorian island resort of Rothesay."
Bute Highland Games