Luss Highland Games: The Battle of the Clans

The first Luss Highland Gathering was held in 1875 and has been held annually since, except for a break during the two World Wars. The games were originally held in a field north of River Luss but as the games become more popular the site was changed to a larger field on the south side of the river where the games are still held today. When entering the games you walk over the a lovely stone bridge crossing the river before following the path to the main entrance. The bridge was actually a fantastic viewpoint for watching the Highland Dance Competition on the event field below.

Initially the Games were held for local townspeople as well as farmers from neighbouring villages and the surrounding glens. The character of games has remained relatively similar over the years with the traditional heavy events remaining as the focal point. The knitted sock & shepherd crook making competitions have however been phased out. Solo piping, Highland Dance, Running and Cycling competitions make up the remainder of the competition programme.

From the very early years the gathering has been always been enjoyed by the patronage of the Clan Colquhoun who's current seat Rossdhu House is within the parish of Luss and in fact is only a 100 yards from the Gathering itself, although a forest in between means there is no direct access to the event field.

This year Clan Colquhoun's Highland Gathering began on Wednesday 3rd July, after taking a tour of the Clan Lands and seat in earlier days of the gathering. On Saturday the clan were out in full force to attend the Highland Games and we were able to speak with Sir Malcolm Colquhoun who told us more about his role of Clan Chief.

My Father passed away in 2008 at which point I took on the role as the 31st Chief of Clan Colquhoun and the 33rd of Luss.

Well, it's largely Ceremonial, I don't have the power of raise an army anymore. I go to quite a lot of Highland Games in America, I've been to Grandfather Mountain, Stone Mountain, I'm going to San Antonio in Texas next year, all good fun, they are on a much larger scale than here in Scotland.

Probably in the south east of the United States. Cahoon and various other septs are large in that area, there are around 100,000 people or more I should think in that area that could be a member of the clan.

I think what you have to do is build a very strong clan society, it won't surprise you hear that the Scottish clan feeling is much stronger in the States than it is here in the UK and even in Scotland so that's where we need to focus. We now have around 1,000 members within the society and when I took over I believe there were only 100 members. I appointed Michael Lloyd-Stern from San Diego as the Chief Executive of the Society, he's a wizard on Social Media. When we get to 5,000 members that will be Job done, it will happen too! When do you think you'll reach this target? Oh, another couple of years.

Well you'd need to ask my son who is Chieftain of the Gathering, I handed over to him last year, having run it for 35 years. But it all looks to be going pretty well to me, it's a good crowd here today, and it's beautiful weather. The clan have always been involved in the games here, this is Colquhounterritory, Luss is HQ.

Yes, we are very intimately associated, we sponsor the band. They're very good actually, they're really excellent in the way that they encourage youngsters to get involved.

No, they generally stick to local events. It would be quite medieval to travel with my own Pipe band, although I do like the sound of that.

We spoke to Sir Michael just before the Clan were about to compete in a friendly clan battle against Clan Buchananand Clan MacEwan, who along with Clan Colquhoun formed the Clan Village at the games.

Given that historically the Buchanan's and Colquhoun's did not get along I was a little surprised to see how call the clans were getting on earlier in the day, was this all about to change as battle commenced? Thankfully the battle comprised of clan members taking part in the Mini Highland Games that had been organised by Loch Lomond Leisure and nothing more sinister.

We also managed to speak with Lady Buchananabout how she and her Husband, The Buchanan, John Michael Baillie-Hamilton Buchanan became the first clan Buchanan chief and lady in over 300 years.

We first got involved when I was pregnant with my eldest son, who's now 23. Well it was actually just before that when I married my husband who is now Chief of Clan Buchanan, so around 25 years ago.

Well he'd always know that he may clan a claim for the chieftainship from his father and his grandfather, but it's taken about 14 years to get this all proved, finding all of the legal documents, which has to be done as it is a legal process. Because Clan Buchanan is such a large clan with an estimated 5 million potential members and many different lines of the Buchanan family it's taken a long while to sort out who is the rightful heir. Thankfully we had the wonderful Hugh Peskett, who is a specialist in Scottish Genealogy and a member of the clan who worked with us to prove it legally, which was quite a feet given that we had to go back to documents from the 13 & 14 hundreds.

Yes, there are different ways of becoming a clan chief. You have to either prove the historic link or if this can't be proven (as it's so difficult to find someone who can understand the ancient Scots and Latin used within documents) then there can be a clan court where members appoint someone as commander of the clan, who can then after some years in this role can become clan chief. It's always preferable for this to be someone with a direct historic bloodline to the original family. I think now there is a much greater interest in people claiming their heritage and a lot of enthusiasm from clan associations and societies to find their next chief. There's now a lot of encouragement surrounding this.

I think Outlanderhelps, a lot of Scottish history and programmes mean people mean that people are interested in finding out and their heritage and then they realise that many of these historic landmarks and castles still exist and that they can actually see where there from.

Because my husband is the first chief for over 300 years there will be an inauguration on our estate at Cambusmore, near Callander. We're going to have a major gathering for members worldwide. We will hold a traditional Clan court following Celtic traditions as recorded by a formal Lord Lyon from one of his books, to back to our past and celebrate our history.

I don't know but whoever comes it will be delightful to see them all.

I get emails everyday, it's wonderful, We are very, very lucky. CBSI (Clan Buchanan Society International) are fabulous, they kept the clan going for a long time without a Chief. They are based, in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand as well as the UK. In fact, in america there is a Clan Buchanan society in every state in the US and in some states there are actually two. We are so fortunate to have that network of members.

The aim is to attend a many Highland Games in America and Australia, this Autumn we will be attending the Loon Mountain Highland Gameswhere we are going to be the honoured clan which is lovely and my husband will be chieftain of the games which is super, it's a very large games with around 46,000 people in attendance. Now that he is the Clan chief he plans to be very involved with the clan and events with many gathering in the future. He plans to be an active Chief.

Walking the dogs in the morning. (Lady Buchanan's dogs were in attendance at the games and were a highlight of the the Clan tent, both in matching clan Buchanan Collars) Also, corresponding with the clan via email. I have four children who always have something going on so it's busy! We are very lucky to do what we do.

Following the Clan Battle, members of all three clans were heading off to prepare for the Ceilidh later in the evening which was organised by Clan Colquhoun as part of their gathering.

It is unique for there to be a Clan village within a UK based Highland Games and this was a great addition to the day and hopefully the start of many more similar villages going forward.