games

The Highland Heavy Games in Belfast

Bagpipes, Festival, Music, Piper

Yesterday in Belfast the last day of the 2015 Maine Celtic Celebration took place with several athletes competing in the Highland Heavy Games. There included games involving having to throw large stones and throwing heavy weights attached to chains. Not to mention tossing cabers and Scottish hammers. Big lads eh?

There was pipe band music to be found throughout the day which is always appreciated as you can find here. Pipers taken the day off playing wedding music to share their talents with an new audience is always a cool thing.

Whilst I didn’t make it myself I read that something called the New World Cheese Roll Championships took place which sounds crazy and interesting. Apparently different age groups chase rolls of cheese down a big hill, assuming the first to get to it is the winner. Are there videos of this event I hear you cry, to which I say of course there are, albeit I couldn’t find any from specifically yesterday there are tons of cheese rolling videos to be found on youtube.

It looks mental.

Anyhow it looked like a fun day out for families in Belfast and I really loved that bagpipers were doing there thing. More information about the event can be found here!

Did you catch any Scottish pipers (or any pipers really) this week? Let us know in the comments below! Did you have anyone play at your wedding? Any Scottish wedding piper stories are always appriciated!

Swords and Bagpipes

Bagpipes, Piper, tabletop games

photo-original

Something a little different today, caught sight of this just now and thought it was pretty unique, a tabletop board game about the first war of Scottish independence featuring bagpipe cards and a map of Scotland on the board. Each round, the players, representing noble houses of Scotland, are asked to choose a side in the current battle—either to ally with England or stand for Scottish independence.

It’s an interesting idea, one that could make for a fun strategy game on the PC, reminds me a bit of a Scottish twist on the old Sid Meier game Colonisation actually. I like the idea of any piece of media featuring Scottish pipers so I could be tempted to pick this up.

The project reached it’s Kickstarter goal and then some and you can find out more about it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1957487380/swords-and-bagpipes-freedom-treachery-power?ref=card

The company is apparently based in Florida so I don’t know how Scottish it truly is but still an interesting curiosity for sure. It does make me wonder if any other games, be they board games or video games, have prominent roles for Scottish pipers on their bagpipes. Can’t think of any myself but if you can feel free to let us know in the comments section below, thats why it’s there!