Tomintoul Highland Games

"A burning barrel of tar is carried around this Moray fishing village to mark the old new year, a Pictish-era survival."

Burning of the Clavie

"Three days of Scottish traditional music, song, dance and verse with bothy ballads, ceilidhs and competitions fill this north-east town for its 51st year."

Keith TMSA Festival

"Grant Park in the ancient market town of Forres hosts its Highland games at the height of summer, a traditional gathering in a town that predates the Viking invasions and where the games feel genuinely embedded in the fabric of the place rather than mounted for visitors."

Forres Highland Games

"Caber-tossing and Highland dancing come to the Alice Littler Memorial Park in the heart of Speyside whisky country."

Aberlour Strathspey Highland Games

"The elegant planned town of Grantown-on-Spey in the upper Spey valley holds its annual agricultural show in August when the moors above are a week from flowering, a show that gathers the farms of Strathspey and Badenoch together for a day of livestock judging and country sports in the heart of the Cairngorms."

Grantown Show

"The self-proclaimed whisky capital of the world hosts its Highland games at Mortlach School grounds each July, where seven working distilleries are within walking distance and the smell of peat smoke is as much a part of the games as any caber."

Dufftown Highland Games

"The Royal Deeside market town of Banchory hosts its agricultural show each August at the gateway to the Cairngorms, where Aberdeenshire beef and Highland cattle are judged against a backdrop of the Forest of Birse and the River Dee shining in the valley below."

Banchory Show

"Market Park in the town that was once the largest cattle market in Scotland and the southern end of the drove roads from the Highlands hosts its gathering each August, where the Knock hill rises above the ground and the games feel rooted in a landscape that shaped the character of the entire Highland cattle trade."

Crieff Highland Gathering

"The Haugh at Forter in remote Glenisla holds its games in a glen where the only road is single track, the mobile phone signal is unreliable and the audience has come from the farms and shooting estates of Angus rather than from any tourist trail, making it one of the most authentic Highland gatherings anywhere."

Glenisla Highland Games

"Blairbeg Park in Drumnadrochit holds its games with Loch Ness stretching south toward the Great Glen and Urquhart Castle ruins visible from the throwing circle, a combination of Highland athletics and legendary scenery that no other games ground in Scotland can match."

Glenurquhart Highland Games

"Set at Inverlochy Castle Farm in the shadow of Ben Nevis, this West Highland agricultural show and family fun day celebrates the farming traditions of Lochaber with livestock and countryside displays."

Lochaber Agricultural Show

"The March of the Lonach Highlanders, kilted men with pikes walking the glen, precedes a day of games at Strathdon."

Lonach Highland Gathering