9/8/2023 0 Comments Highland games loon mountain![]() ![]() There was something so American about it, and I wondered what my friends back in Scotland would think. Charlie Zahm, Scottish entertainer, performed ‘Caledonia’ at least three times. In that cacophony of pipes and drums, on the New Hampshire mountainside, I encountered this kind admiration for the Scots, and such affection. “I mean, it seems like every 100 years they were fighting the English, trying to get their independence.” “I think the thing about Scots in general over the years is their resiliency,” he said. Roberts explained that in addition to piping, he does 18th century reenacting, and he’s interested in the Jacobites. He has traveled in Scotland, though, and he’s actually been to my old town. He doesn’t spread this information widely, but Roberts doesn’t actually have any Scottish heritage. ![]() Jim Roberts is another member of that Manchester pipe band. “The people are just so nice, and, just, the sounds echoing off the ’s just so magical. “I guess half of it is the culture and half of it is the music,” he told me. He’s a snare drummer and bass drummer with New Hampshire Pipes and Drums in Manchester. I found sixteen year-old Parker Bell tapping a drum under a tent. NHPR Parker Bell says his pipe band is a tight family. But if they hadn’t, it didn’t seem to dampen their enthusiasm. “This is a way for us to kind of embrace some of that history and to see some of those ’s kind of nice to see your heritage come to life,” Karen Nocito, Clan Colquhoun, explained.Ī few people I met had traveled to Scotland. My mother is from the Henderson clan, my father is from the Macrae clan.”Įveryone I met seemed to know their clan - Armstrong, Lamont, Henderson. Many answered like Kristin Menslage: “Well, we have a lot of Scottish heritage in our family. I started asking people why they were there. And though Scots do like their kilts and wear them for special occasions, I believe we saw more kilts that day on Loon Mountain than we did in our three years in Scotland. ![]() I talked to the local fire chief and confirmed that as many people attended the event that day as makes up the entire population of Oban. The first difference we noticed about the New Hampshire highland games was the heat - it’s never that hot in Scotland. Menslage has been attending the New Hampshire Highland Games for 25 years, since she was a kid, and now she brings her own children. NHPR Grace Berglund and her daughter, Kristin Menslage. That’s what the games were about for us, so why would thousands of Americans travel to Lincoln, N.H., for something similar? And standing on those green fields, surrounded by mountains, there was a distinct feeling of community. ![]() It was often cold and raining, but we’d see our friends there. These were small, local events - athletic or agricultural competitions, girls dancing high on their toes under a tent, cakes sold by local ladies, and rented bouncy castles for the kids. So when our town, Oban, and the towns around us put on highland games or shows, we tried to go. That part of Scotland is classified as remote and rural by the Scottish government, and there wasn’t a lot to do. My husband worked there as an oceanographer, at a research lab on Scotland’s west coast. I moved to New Hampshire from Scotland about six months ago. NHPR’s Cori Princell attended with her family.and something of a unique perspective. It’s one of the largest gatherings like it in the U.S. The 42 nd New Hampshire Highland Games took place this weekend in Lincoln. ![]()
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