Visit Headwaters During The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games!

The 54th Annual Grandfather Mountain Highland Games will be held July 9th – 12th at MacRae Meadows on Grandfather Mountain! For a complete schedule, vist: www.gmhg.org.

From Wikipedia:

In 1956, Mrs. Agnes MacRae Morton of Linville, NC and Mr. Donald F. MacDonald of Charlotte, NC co-founded the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. Donald MacDonald’s vision for the games was based on the Royal Braemar Gathering, which he’d attended a few years before in Scotland in 1954.

The Braemar Games had been held there for several hundred years and the Grandfather Mountain Games was often later called “America’s Braemar”. It was special in many ways, by boasting an oval track in which traditional foot races could be held, along with the heavy events in the inner field. The site became a favorite among games attendees very fast for its striking resemblance to the highlands of Scotland.

The MacRae family owned the land where the games were held at the foot of Grandfather Mountain in Linville, NC. The McRae family actually founded the town of Linville in 1892 and had always wanted to have a highland gathering there, even if just a small event. In 1955, Mrs. Morton contacted Donald MacDonald, who at the time was working for The Charlotte News and had also founded the Clan Donald Society not long before that as well as helping establish a Robert Burns Society of Charlotte. Knowing his dedication to Scottish culture, Mrs. Morton set out to convince him to help her start highland games in North Carolina. Mr. MacDonald agreed and the first games were held on August 19th, 1956, on the anniversary of the landing of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland and the beginning of the 1745 uprising.

The two set out to model the games after what Mr. MacDonald remembered from the Braemar games and using the program he had brought back with him. The very first games were only one day in length with two bands and a small group of competitions. The games were small at first with only 1500 attendees, but became popular quickly and highland games began spreading throughout the country modeled after the Grandfather Mountain Games.