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50 free Highland Games trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Highland games trivia for anyone who has watched a caber turn end over end, marched behind a pipe band, or worn a kilt to a summer gathering. This quiz covers the heavy events first: how the caber toss is scored like a clock face, what the Braemar stone and the open stone are, how the Scottish hammer differs from the Olympic version, the 56-pound weight over the bar, the sheaf toss with a pitchfork and the 'lazy stick' contest from the Isle of Lewis. It then covers the gatherings and their history: King Malcolm III's hill race at Braemar, the ban on Highland dress after Culloden, Queen Victoria's 1848 visit, the Cowal Games in Dunoon with its World Highland Dancing Championship, the huge American gatherings at Grandfather Mountain, New Hampshire and Pleasanton, and the strongmen from Donald Dinnie to Geoff Capes. Highland dancing, bagpipes and kilts each get their turn. Questions range from easy to expert, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. If you enjoy this quiz, try our Scotland, bagpipes and strongman quizzes next.
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Q 01What is the large tapered pole tossed at Highland games called?
A caber
The word comes from the Gaelic 'cabar', a wooden beam; the pole is usually cut from a larch tree.
Q 02What is the ideal result of the pole-tossing event?
It turns end over end and falls straight away
Distance does not matter at all; judges score the line of the fall like the hours on a clock face.
Q 03A perfect caber toss is scored as what?
12 o'clock
A caber that reaches vertical but topples sideways scores 9 or 3; one that falls back to the thrower scores lower than any turned throw.
Q 04From what tree is a Scottish caber usually made?
Larch
It can be 16 to 20 feet long and weigh 90 to 150 pounds.
Q 05The 'Braemar' and 'Open' styles are the two versions of which heavy event, akin to the shot put?
Putting the stone
The Braemar version is a standing put with no run-up; the Open Stone allows a glide or spin.
Q 06The Scottish ball-on-a-rattan-shaft event is the forerunner of which Olympic event?
Hammer throw
The Highland version uses a metal ball on a four-foot wooden or rattan shaft, whirled round the head from a fixed stance.
Q 07Why do throwers in the Scottish ball-and-shaft event sometimes wear boots with flat blades on the front?
To dig into the turf and stay anchored
Unlike Olympic hammer throwers, they may not move their feet, so the blades anchor them against the centrifugal pull.
Q 08How heavy is the men's weight in the weight-over-bar event?
56 lb
That is four stone, or half a hundredweight, tossed one-handed over a horizontal bar.
Q 09How many hands may an athlete use to throw the weight over the bar?
One
The weight is swung between the legs like a pendulum and released at the top of the arc.
Q 10In the sheaf toss, a burlap-wrapped bundle of straw is thrown over a bar using what?
A pitchfork
The men's sheaf weighs 20 pounds; purists debate whether it is a genuine Highland event or a country-fair import.
Q 11What is 'maide-leisg', a strength contest still held at Carloway on the Isle of Lewis?
Two seated rivals pull a stick until one lifts off
The Gaelic name means 'lazy stick'; a similar contest, mas-wrestling, is popular among the Yakuts of Siberia.
Q 12The keg toss, now a Highland and strongman staple, developed mainly from games in which country?
Ireland
An empty half-barrel is heaved over a bar with both hands; World's Strongest Man introduced an eight-keg version in 2010.
Q 13The heavy weight in the weight-for-distance event weighs how much for men?
56 lb
Q 21Which 1906 trophy from Princess Louise still goes to the winning Grade 1 pipe band at Cowal?
The Argyll Shield
She was Duchess of Argyll; the pipe band contest for Army bands started that same year.
Q 22The Northern Hemisphere's oldest and largest Highland gathering, held since 1866, is in which US state?
California
The Scottish Highland Gathering and Games at Pleasanton drew close to 50,000 for its 150th edition in 2015.
Q 23The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, drawing some 30,000 people, are held in which US state?
North Carolina
Agnes MacRae Morton and Donald MacDonald founded them in 1956; the state was a magnet for Highland emigrants after the Clearances.
The light weight is 28 pounds; the implement is thrown one-handed by its handle, usually with a spin.
Q 14Which 11th-century Scottish king reputedly staged a Braemar hill race to find his fastest messenger?
Malcolm III
The runners raced up Craig Choinnich; the modern Braemar Gathering claims descent from those games.
Q 15The modern Highland games are largely a development of which century?
19th
They emerged after the Jacobite risings and the ban on Highland dress had been lifted.
Q 16In which year was the 1747 Dress Act banning civilian kilts repealed?
1782
The romantic revival of Highland culture followed in the early 19th century.
Q 17Which monarch first attended the Braemar Gathering, on 14 September 1848?
Queen Victoria
The reigning monarch has been patron of the Braemar Royal Highland Society ever since and is styled Chieftain of the games.
Q 18The first modern Braemar games with cash prizes were held in which year?
1832
The Braemar Highland Society was formed in 1815 and added 'Royal' to its name in 1866.
Q 19The Cowal Highland Gathering, Scotland's largest games, is held in which town?
Dunoon
It draws around 3,500 competitors and 23,000 spectators every August; paddle steamers from Glasgow first made it popular.
Q 20Which world title has been decided at the Cowal Gathering every year since 1934?
Highland dancing
The title is sanctioned by the Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing at juvenile, junior and adult levels.
Q 24Which Olympic founder was reportedly inspired by Highland games at the 1889 Paris Exhibition?
Pierre de Coubertin
He was then planning the revival of the Olympic Games, first held in Athens in 1896.
Q 25Roughly how many annual Highland games events were being held worldwide as of 2000?
At least 260
More than 100 of them were in the United States and dozens more in Canada.
Q 26Which 19th-century Aberdeenshire strongman, Scottish champion for 21 years, entered 11,000+ events?
Donald Dinnie
He excelled at everything from hurdles and pole vault to caber tossing and wrestling.
Q 27The pair of lifting stones reportedly carried across Potarch Bridge in 1860 weigh how much together?
733 lb
The larger stone is 414.5 pounds and the smaller 318.5; the bridge crossing was just over 17 feet.
Q 28What was the original purpose of the Dinnie Stones?
Counterweights for maintaining Potarch Bridge
They were selected in the 1830s and still sit outside the Potarch Hotel for challengers to lift.
Q 29British shot putter and strongman Geoff Capes won how many Highland Games world titles?
Six
He took the first in Lagos in 1981 and the last in 1987, alongside two World's Strongest Man wins.
Q 30The great Highland bagpipe has how many drones?
Three
Two tenor drones and one bass drone, all tuned to A, plus a chanter with a nine-note scale.