Home > Uniquely Unspoilt Magazine > Issue 14 > Rural theatres

~~ The Braemar Gathering - by John Duff ~~

The origins of the Braemar Gathering are wreathed in the mists of time, but it is certainly of mediaeval origin, and is associated by legend with Malcolm Canmore, the 11th century Scottish king. 

Until comparatively recently, it was customary in the late summer for Highland clan chiefs to hold hunting gatherings; in the evenings the chiefs would watch displays of manly and athletic prowess by their clansmen. 

The best known of these gatherings was held at Braemar by the Earl of Mar in September 1715, and was used by him as a pretext to plan the Jacobite uprising of that year.

After the disastrous defeat at Culloden in 1746 marked the end of the Jacobite cause, the draconian ?Disarming Act? was enforced; outlawing Highland dress, the playing of the bagpipes and gatherings of more than two people, and this of course rendered traditional clan gatherings impossible. 

This law was not repealed for 36 years.  We know from written records that the Braemar Gathering was well established in something akin to its present form by 1800, so we can say with confidence that the present Gathering originates around the end of the 18th century.

Braemar Royal Highland Society, (then the Braemar Wright Society), was formed during the third week of July in 1815 as a Mutual Aid Society, and was registered as a Friendly Society in 1817 ? now believed to be the oldest surviving Friendly Society in the country. 

It first became involved with the Braemar Gathering in 1832, when it donated £5 in prizes for 5 competitions at that year?s event.  The partnership survived and blossomed, and now the Gathering fields nearly 70 events, with prize money of over £12,000.

Braemar?s proudest day was on Thursday, 14 September, 1848, when Queen Victoria first visited the Gathering, hosted that year by the Laird of Invercauld at Invercauld House.  This Royal patronage was to be continued by 5 British monarchs; led to the Gathering being held by Royal Command on  5 occasions at Balmoral, and to the title ?Royal? being conferred on the Society.

Visitors to the Gathering today will find that from the opening ceremony at 9.30 a.m., until the end of the Games at about 5 p.m., there is constant activity in the arena, with  caber tossing, weight and hammer throwing and tug-o?-war, as well as highland dancing and light athletic events.

During the day the atmosphere builds up until the arrival of the Royal entourage about 3 p.m., closely followed by the tremendous spectacle of the massed pipe bands, resplendent in their various tartans, dress tunics and feather bonnets. 

It would be an insensitive person indeed whose Scots blood did not thrill to the deafening skirl of the pipes, backed by the staccato rattle of the drums; sounds which through the ages have struck terror into the hearts of our enemies. 

This year also Braemar is to be privileged once more by a visit from the Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas, these incredibly smart and smiling Nepalese hill-men, whose courage and loyalty to the British Throne has been legendary for so long.

John Duff
Braemar Royal Highland Society

The following holiday cottages are situated within easy reach of the locations mentioned above: