A new venue and an international flavour greeted visitors to the Aberlour Highland Games at the weekend with visitors from as far afield as the United States and Thailand taking part.
Flood works at Alice Little Memorial Park forced a change of venue this year with the games held at Speyside High School – but the extra space afforded by the temporary home allowed the games to be larger than ever.
While several of the 50 overseas guests enjoyed the novelty ‘haggis throwing’ event one visitor from Moscow was tasked with the job of presenting the Tug ‘o War prize.
Organising committee secretary Brian Cameron explained: “We had a gentleman from Moscow visiting us who set up the first Highland Games in Russia back in 1997.
“I don’t know the exact word for it but I suppose I could describe him as an Albaphile – he loves all things Scottish including the works of Robert Burns.
“Quite why so many people came from overseas this year is a good question but it was very nice to welcome them all – the fame of Aberlour must be spreading far beyond Moray.”
The organisers faced a number of challenging problems with the change of venue, and while saddened that they had to move this year Mr Cameron admitted it did have advantages.
He said: “If anything the extra room we had this year meant we would have more stalls and stage a few extra events so it worked out rather well.”