Scottish American Heritage Month

April is Scottish American Heritage Month. My earliest family members came to the new land from Scotland in the early 1700s. So as a good little Scottish American, I figured I’d share some pictures of us celebrating our heritage at the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games over the years.

This is the oldest highland games picture I can find, and if I had to guess this is sometime around 2007-2008, wearing Clan Campbell Tartan.

I’m not sure what year these pics are from either, but probably 2010-2011 ish.

2013

My favorite snack at the games is the deep-fried Mars bar, I look forward to it every year and you can’t visit the games without catching at least a couple of pipe and drum bands. This year I was wearing MacTavish Tartan.

2016

This was the first year Christopher had his own kilt, all the boys got matching Thompson Tartan kilts for Christmas in 2015. Another fun activity at the games is watching the border collie sheep herding.

2017

Beer from Dunedin Brewery is a highland games staple. If you buy a pitcher, you can bring it back to refill every year. We might have a few pitchers. How cute is the Highland cow?

2018

No highland games would be complete without a visit to the Unicorn, Scotland’s national animal.

2019

No big deal, just my dad, Christopher, and brother repping Clan Thompson in the Welcoming Ceremonies Parade of Tartans

2020

This was the first highland games we went to without my dad, my parents were living in North Carolina at this point, and the last highland games before the world shut down. The games were canceled in 2021.

2022

If you haven’t seen a caber toss, I highly recommend looking it up and trying to see it in real life sometime.

2022 was the last year we were able to attend the highland games before we moved to the woods. I miss it so much. Hopefully, we can visit Florida to take in a little Scottish culture in 2025.

Have you ever been to a Scottish Highland Games Festival? If so, what was your favorite part?