Braemar Gathering
5 September 2026 · movable holiday — Heave! The caber flips – let's hope it reaches the stars!
The Braemar Gathering is one of the best-known Scottish Highland games. It is held in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, in the Scottish Highlands, on the first Saturday of September. The event combines contests of strength and skill with bagpipe music and traditional dancing. The most famous event is the caber toss: the athlete lifts a long wooden pole and flings it so that it turns end over end and lands pointing away from the thrower. Judges score the accuracy of the turn, not the distance. Other events include the hammer throw, the weight throw and hill racing. The Gathering is often attended by members of the British royal family. The festival follows the civil calendar rather than an astronomical event, but by early September the nights are lengthening and the skies over the Highlands grow ever more striking. The date is always the first Saturday of the month.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure of a broad-shouldered highlander in a kilt, drawn from bright dots and fine lines like a constellation
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