Great Scots! NH Highland Games celebrates 50 years

With the White Mountains behind them, pipe bands gather during the 2017 New Hampshire Highland Games and Festival at Loon Mountain Resort.

What began as a family picnic outside the Octagon Lodge has grown into one of the premier celebrations of all things Caledonian anywhere. From Sept. 19 to 21, everyone, no matter their ancestry, is invited to the 50th birthday bash for the New Hampshire Highland Games and Festival at Loon Mountain Resort. 

Highlights of the festivities, which for years have cumulatively attracted an average of 35,000 visitors, include an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most bagpipers playing the same song and the presentation of a coat of arms from the British monarchy to NHSCOT, the Concord-based nonprofit that organizes the games and whose mission is to “preserve and promote Scottish culture for future generations.”

Additionally, NHSCOT will announce that it has acquired Camp Spaulding, a former summer camp in Concord, where it will move both its headquarters and programs, although the games will remain at Loon.

A competitor in the heavy athletics professional class tosses the stone in 2016.

NHSCOT President Josh Auger said the games and festival, which started in 1975 at Loon as a Murray-family get-together, are open and welcoming to Scots and non-Scots alike, similar to the thought that on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish.

“That’s 100 percent correct,” said Auger, who is the advertising sales manager with New Hampshire Magazine. “Everybody is 100 percent Scottish.”

Auger, who grew up in New Hampshire, regularly visited Loon and the Lincoln area with his family growing up and has attended the Highland Games for about 20 years.

“These games are closing all over the world, and if we can’t get together and support these kinds of initiatives, they’re going to go away,” Auger said.

The New Hampshire Highland Games has grown and prospered over their half-
century of existence, and their future is bright, Auger said.

The games have broad support, including from Colin Gray, the head of the Scottish Government USA, who will be in attendance at them.

“On behalf of the Scottish Government USA, I would like to offer warm congratulations to the NH Scots on the 50th anniversary of the New Hampshire Highland Games and Festival this year,” Gray wrote in an email.

The games “are an exciting part of the summer for the Scottish diaspora who want to get involved and share their Scottish connections. Our office is delighted to have attended past highland games in New Hampshire and are glad to see the New Hampshire Highland Games and Festival continue to grow every year.”

“We wish everyone competing in the games good luck, and hope all attendees enjoy a weekend of fun, friendship and Scottish hospitality,” Gray said.

A pipe band marches to the competition venue at the 2022 New Hampshire Highland Games.

It’s a big deal to have Gray present, said Auger, but another big deal is NHSCOT getting its own coat of arms, which is granted by the British monarchy.

“We have never officially had a coat of arm to promote what we do in the States, and we’re proud to know we’re being recognized,” he said.

Other public officials who are expected to attend the Highland games are: Gov. Kelly Ayotte; David Clay, the United Kingdom consul general to New England; and the Honorable Bernadette Jordan, Consul General of Canada in Boston.

Making a return in 2025 after several years of absence is Glaswegian John Carmichael.

A beloved Scottish wit whose accordion-playing skills have taken him round the world and saw him perform numerous times for the late Queen Elizabeth II, Carmichael has served multiple times as emcee of the Highland Games and was one of its honorary chieftains.

“The games are the highlight of my annual calendar. The atmosphere is tremendous,” said Carmichael during a telephone interview from his home across the pond. “We have highland games in the UK, but they don’t come up (to those at Loon.) “Here (in the UK) it’s more piping and dancing,” he said, whereas the Loon games also feature heavy athletics and a variety of other activities.

“I’m delighted to be coming back to the games” at Loon, Carmichael summed up. “Loon is right up there and (is) as good, if not better, than most.”

For attendees looking to avail themselves of Scottish food and drink at the Highland games, Terri Wiltse, the longtime executive director of NHSCOT, said there will be plenty of both, with Loon serving up the haggis.

According to VisitScotland.com, haggis, Scotland’s national dish, is “a type of savoury pudding that combines meat with oatmeal, onions, salt and spices” and is often served with “bashed neeps” (turnips) and “mashed tatties,” potatoes, and was traditionally cooked in a sheep’s stomach.

Hafþór Björnsson, who appeared as “The Mountain” in the HBO Series “Game of Thrones,”
competes in the heavy athletics event in 2015.

Wiltse noted with pride that some residents of Scotland have told her that the Highland Games are “more Scottish than we are,” adding that with almost 40,000 annual visitors, “We’re one of the biggest in the U.S., which does make us one of the biggest in the world.”

The Highland Games has been innovative, she said, in terms of inclusion.

“To my knowledge, we were the first to add disabled veterans” as competitors in the heavy athletics — the Braemar Stone, Open Stone, Heavy Weight for Distance, Light Weight for Distance, Weight Over Bar, Sheaf Toss, and the Caber Toss, Wiltse said.

Tony Felch, whose ancestry is mostly English but who acknowledges that “I do have some Scottish in me,” said he is looking forward to being at the 2025 Highland Games.

A member of the Laconia City Council and of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association, Felch knows a bit about large events and said the Highland Games, which he has attended more than a dozen times, is well organized, from the shuttle buses that transport visitors to and from Loon to the extensive schedule of activities.

“I go for pretty much everything,” said Felch, although he is particularly partial to
the games as a spectacle.

A competitor prepares to launch a stone during the heavy athletics contest at the 2018 games.

“The games themselves are great, but listening to the bagpipes is magic. The grand entry (of the clans) is just glorious with all the pipers piping at once,” he said.

Lincoln Selectman O.J. Robinson said the Highland Games are an economic boon to his community.

A major year-round tourist destination in itself and a gateway to and from the White Mountains, Robinson said he realized how the Highland Games would change Lincoln in 1977, when his family was operating Parkers Motel, which was booked solid with drum and bagpipe bands.

“One band member told me, ‘This is going to be a big deal,’ and us thinking that would be nice, and obviously he was proven correct,” Robinson said.

He added that the town works closely with NHSCOT and Loon to make sure the event goes off successfully, with Andrew Noyes, former vice president of guest services at Loon and long-time liaison to NH Scot, agreeing that “it’s a coordinated effort” among the parties.

Kevin Bell, Loon’s vice president of marketing, called the Highland Games “a complex and detail-intensive event that requires extensive cooperation” and planning.

“The Games have a major economic impact on the region,” said Bell, “and Loon has been proud to play a role in making this event so successful.”