A trip to the 2012 Spokane Highland Games: Members of the Angus Scott Pipe Band march past during the massed bands. Some pipe bands came from Missoula or British Columbia to march this afternoon. Being a local group, Steve Brown of the Angus Scott band led the bagpipers during the noontime procession. 

If you think Cougars versus Huskies has been one of the longest running rivalries, try the Irish and Scottish. Every year they get to show each other what’s what in a game of tug o’war. 

Protip: If you’re the mayor of the second biggest city in Washington, you can bet your photo will be taken when you wear a kilt to a tug o’war competition. Mayor David Condon wears his plaid representing County Cork* where his grandfather was from. The team of Scots were no match for Condon’s team of Irishmen.

Sheep herding was one of my favorite parts of today’s highland games. Noelle Williams, a sheep dog handler out of Deer Park, was there with her two dogs, Nap and Copper. One of the sheep escaped. How convinenant that there were sheep herding dogs nearby to bring them back to their pen. Also, staring sheep are creepy.

And who could resist free samples of haggis! It’s like meatloaf, except boiled in sheep’s bladder and instead of hamburger - it’s organs. 

*When naming a county in Ireland, you put the county name last. Here we say Spokane County. There we would say County Spokane. Let it also be known that there is also the “Cork County Council” which defies the previous rule. 

Top