Highland Gatherings, Sport, and Social Class€¦ · Highland Gatherings, Sport, and Social Class Grant Jarvie Leeds Polytechnic This paper takes as its central focus the development

SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT JOURNAL, 1988.3, 344-355

Highland Gatherings, Sport, and Social Class

Grant Jarvie Leeds Polytechnic

This paper takes as its central focus the development of the Scottish High- land Gatherings. Questioned is the extent to which the transformation and reproduction of this Highland tradition has paralleled broader transformations within the Highland social formation. Such an analysis certainly encompasses some of the most basic questions that might be asked about Scottish cultural identity and social structure.

When Adam Ferguson (1776) wrote his essay on the history of civil society, he looked to the Britain of his lifetime and saw a geography of historical progress. History was a line of development along which societies made the transition through stages from a crude, backward, and barbarous state to a polished and advanced state of civilization. England in particular shone in the early 18th century as a beacon of political liberty and intellectual freedom across absolutist Eu- rope. Scotland's progress was all the more striking because there was this one large part of it, the Highlands, which remained relatively undeveloped. The iro- ny is, of course, that while this view of historical progress was put most effectively in the theoretical works of Adam Ferguson, himself a Highlander, the Highlands themselves were experiencing a developmental gap with all the ac- companying dilemmas and ambiguities.

In a European context, Highland Scotland is perhaps unique in that the bulk of the Highlands is owned and controlled by a handful of beneficiaries who, ir- respective of their involvement with land as a productive resource, have an influence on local communities that many regard as being disproportionate to the standards that pertain in other European countries (McEwan, 1981; Orr, 1982). One of the constant themes on the area has been that of community dependency and, in particular, the effect that the tenurial system of land control has had on past and present social structures. That this is still regarded as a key question in the political economy of the Highlands is no more than a reflection of what many commentators regard as a major but unanswered question. Who ought to own and control the land of the Scottish periphery?

Direct all correspondence to Grant Jarvie, Faculty of Education and Leisure Studies, Leeds Polytechnic, Becketts Park, Leeds LS6 3QS, England.

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HIGHLAND GATHERINGS 345

Now, Adam Ferguson wrote nothing at all on the Scottish Highland Gather- ings. Few sociologists have addressed Highland problems at all, let alone consider what some believe to be a peripheral area of sociological inquiry, namely sport. From the beginning the position assumed in this paper is that it is not necessary to view the Highlands or Highland sporting forms as peripheral or meaningless objects of sociological inquiry. With specific reference to the Scottish Highland Gatherings, consider the following problems: What is the relationship between the Highland Gatherings and the prevailing social structure? How have the High- land Gatherings been affected by the historical epoch in which they move? What social forces have shaped this Highland tradition? In what way do the HighIand Gatherings reflect Scottish cultural identity?

I have raised these questions merely as an indication of the potential rich- ness that may be found in a sociological inquiry which has as its central focus the development of this tradition. The degree to which the transformation and reproduction of the Highland Gatherings have paralleled broader transformations within Highland society is certainly an issue that encompasses some of the most basic questions that might be asked about the Highland Gatherings and various social figurations such as the clan, landlord, and emigre. However, in order to answer some of these questions it is necessary to situate the analysis of the High- land Gatherings within the broader context of history and social development. While some of the initial comments might not be directly related to sport it is important, in the first instance, to delve into the history of the Highland people because that is where many of the answers to contemporary problems and issues lie.

Resistance to Complementary Capitalism

Even the most liberal of social historians have acknowledged the fact that the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England was a peculiar bargain between two ruling-class formations (Daiches, 1977). The Union marked the cul- mination of a process in which a predominantly Lowland Scottish ruling class sacrificed political independence in pursuit of economic gain. In the long run, the effect of the Union was to strengthen the interest of those who had a stake in transforming Scotland into a progressive capitalist formation. What was to emerge in Scotland was what Burgess refers to as complementary forms of capitalism rather than competitive forms of capitalism (Burgess, 1980). Lowland Scots in particular were ushered by England into the wealthy clubs south of the border and consequently were able to reap the rewards of the unionization process. On the other hand, the incorporation of Scotland within a "United Kingdom" provided a natural mode of expansion for the English agricultural market in particular.

It is important to point out that such developments were subject to an in- tensive period of struggle between a number of competing cultural factions. Even after the Union, Highlander and Lowlander, Stuart and Hanoverian, and landlord and tenant all contributed to a particular period of struggle that culminated in the defeat of the Highland army at the battle of Culloden in 1746. A significant number of Scots, living primarily in the Highlands, owed allegiance to the house of Stuart which directly opposed the dominant Hanoverian hegemony and the advancing forces of southern capitalism. The Jacobite rebellion of 1745 was

much more than a social movement. It gave expression to a Highland way of life in which ties of kinship counted for much more than capital gain and profit.

At the heart of this social order lay the gemeinschaft of the clan. Yet it is important to avoid romantic idealistic images of what was a very violent, patriarchal way of life in which many Highlanders lived on the very edge of an impoverished material existence. A number of factors need to be briefly mentioned: (a) The structure of the clan consisted essentially of a stratified peasantry, chief, chieftain, tacksmen, tenants, and cotters. @) A large sector of the clan economy was dependent upon cattle; Highland existence was invariably violent, with grand warfare based on clan solidarity producing sporadic outbursts of cattle-raiding well into the middle of the 18th century. (c) The essential feature of the system was that it depended upon land being laid out to ensure the continued existence of the clan as a socially unified, effective military organization; the land belonged to the clan and not the chief. (d) The chiefs power and status were acquired not from the wealth but from the clan's m i l i G status.

It is against this harsh, materially impoverished, and violent way of life that the antecedent forms of today's modern Highland Gatherings may be found. One thing that both Gruneau (1976) and Dunning and Sheard (1979) make per- fectly clear is that any definitional attempt whichignores the characteristicsthat have surrounded sports transformations from an elite or folk recreational activity into a major institutional component of modem life will be seriously flawed. One of the major problems any researcher faces when trying to pinpoint the origins of the Highland Gatherings is the fragmentary nature of the evidence. High- land tradition itself helps to explain this in that so many of the customs, legends, and traditions of the Highland communities tended to be passed on through the generations by word of mouth rather than by being written down.

However. a number of references can be found that indicate the modem Highland ~ a t h e r i n ~ s in existence today have evolved from a number of traditions that existed before 1745. Many of these traditions were individual rather than collective, in the sense that hill-racing, putting the stone, and tossing the caber all existed as individual sporting traditions in their own right without neces- sarily belonging to a specific Highland Gathering. It should first be mentioned that today's Highland Gatherings depend upon a certain number of traditional practices such as playing the bagpipes, highland dancing, athletics, tossing the caber, putting the stone and, in some instances, hill races. Here I merely want to establish the fact that such events have a much earlier history.

First, Highland dancing and bagpipe playing were important aspects of pre-1745 clan life. One of the most famous examples is probably the MacCrim- mons of Syke, hereditary pipers to the Clan Macleod since at least the 16th century (Macpherson, 1957). The piper fulfilled specific tasks such as recording clan history through music. Second, Highland chiefs often had stones of strength at the entrance of their dwellings so that visitors could test their strength (Webster, 1957). The lifting of the strength stone played a crucial part in Highland rnatrimoni- al ceremonies. Third, many other Highland Gathering traditions such as tossing the caber have their origins firmly rooted within the recreative pastimes of skilled manual laborers such as woodsmen or farm laborers (Webster, 1973). Fourth, reference might be made to the first minutes of the Cowall Highland Gathering, in which the following explanation was provided:


Highland Gatherings in Scotland go back many generations. It was customary for the Gaels to hold an Autumn Gathering or sports prior to the "kirn" or "harvest home" when the crops had been safely gathered in. This ancient social tradition was a feature of Highland life in Scotland, and took place usually when the grain had been cut and "stooked" in late August or early September.

Finally, reference should also be made to the traditional means whereby the clans were called to council. The Gathering of the Clans in this instance culminated from the dispatch of a fiery cross being carried round the clan territory by a runner. The fiery cross was the signal for the clan to gather, usually because some enemy had encroached upon their territory. The fiery cross, comments Car- nell (1939), consisted of two pieces of wood bound together to form a cross, with one of the horizontal ends burnt and the other adorned with a fragment of cloth stained with blood to show that anyone who disobeyed the command would be punished with fire and sword. As an example, reference might be made to the sending of the cross around Loch Tay by Lord Breadalbane in 1745.

Clearance and Emigration

In 1773, 27 years after Culloden, Dr. Samuel Johnson came to the High- lands hoping to discover a people of peculiar appearance and a system of ante- quated life. He found instead that he had come too late (Johnson, 1773/1924:51). He explained,

There was perhaps never any change of national manners so quick, so great, as that which operated in the Highlands by the late conquest and subsequent laws . . . . The clans retain little now of their original character. Their ferocity of temper is softened, their military ardour is extinguished, their dignity of independence is depressed, their contempt for government subdued, and their reverence for their chiefs abated.

A number of factors gave rise to reorganization and social upheaval that characterized much of Highland social history between 1745 and the Crofters Act of 1886. Clearly it is not feasible to provide an in-depth account of this period here. However, two principal factors need to be mentioned. First is that the defeat of the Highland army at Culloden effectively marked the end of an intense period of resistance and struggle. Yet the significance of Culloden was not so much that it was a catastrophic defeat for the Highland army, for there had been many such defeats in the past that had proved to be little more than a prelude to future struggles. What distinguished Culloden from previous defeats was the determined attempt by the British state to destroy the social and political fabric of the traditional way of life (Hunter, 1976).

The second factor was that the need for commercial profitability after 1746 now became the dominant influence in terms of estate management. The governments post Culloden policies removed any obstacles that the traditional way of life had put in the way of such exploitation. Highland chiefs stripped of

their power and influence over their clans became increasingly dependent upon the need for an ever increasing amount of cash in order to facilitate their movement and profitability within the new order. As Burgess (1980) points out, the defeat at Culloden not only marked the end of a threat to the progressive forces of capitalism but also opened up the Highlands to increased capitalist penetration and profit for some. The confiscation of estates following the 1745 rebellion helped to enliven the Highland land market and increase the revenue of loyalist landowners like the Duke of Argyll from 25,000 in 1703 to nearly Z10,000 in 1761.

The Act of Proscription of 1747 was particularly significant in the sense that by one act of Parliament the British state virtually destroyed the cultural traditions and way of life that had existed in the Highlands since at least the 14th century. The Act prevented (a) the wearing of Highland dress, (b) the meeting together of Highland people, and (c) the playing of bagpipes and other forms of traditional entertainment. But above all, it destroyed the judicial powers of the Highland chief over his own people. While different meanings were attributed to the wearing of the Highland dress after about 1780, there is little evidence that the common people of the Highlands ever resumed the habit after 1747.

The traditional staple product of cattle was soon replaced by two new commodities, wool and kelp. A massive transformation of the traditional High- land agrarian system was required to facilitate the production of these commodities, particularly wool. The eviction of Highland people from the land in order to make way for sheep must be one of the most well documented periods in High- land history. The conventional wisdom on the clearances is to be found in John Prebble's book Highland Clearances (1963). In brief, the argument is simply that after Culloden the Highlanders were increasingly deserted and betrayed by the very people they had defended for centuries and been loyal servants to in every sense of the word.

However, it is interesting that many of the recent debates concerning the clearances have been much more sensitive to the notions of structure and agen- cy. Bumpstead (1982) comments that the Highlanders could and did make deci- sions that were beyond the control of the landowners. The suggestion here is that emigration to Canada, America, and even Australia was as much a consequence of reaction to change as to eviction from the land by Highland chiefs and landlords. Bumpstead comments that the clearances were as much a result of a pull to the colonies as they were a push from the Highlands.

Certainly I agree with Bumpstead when he states that for the first time large numbers of Highlanders were leaving for the New World, responding to great and relatively sudden changes in traditional Highland society. Yet to describe this as free choice is to broaden the concept of choice to a point where any factor that forces the less powerful to make a particular decision can be described as choice. To repeat a critical statement in the text, only by departing hislher native land could the Highlander hope to maintain a traditional way of life (Bumpstead, 198251). There was no option but to move or to remain and participate in un- equal conflict. If choice is significant, it only reflects where the populace went and not the fact that they were forced to do so. Quite simply, the peasantry were no longer in a position to survive in the new order. They either remained to experience misery or moved reluctantly to other lands.


They took with them many of the cultural artifacts and experiences from the Highlands. Highland Gatherings are common occurrences in Canada, America, and Australia. The Scottish-American of July/August 1985 reports on the 102nd San Francisco Highland Games. Further references are made to the Gulf Coast Scottish Festival and Highland Games. Leisure Ways, June 1985, reports on the Fergus Highland Games styled after the Braemar Highland Gathering. It is interesting that in his discussion of the structuring of play, games, and sports in the context of Canada's colonial development, Gruneau (1983) refers to the fact that many imported colonial game contests, while never universally accepted, certainly contributed to an initial phase in the structuring of Canadian sporting development. Yet the point I should like to make is that it is important not to distinguish between the achievements of one emigr6 such as George Goldie, in whose honor the Princeton Caledonian Games of 1873 were inaugurated, and the general process by which emigrks in general came to be associated with High- land Gatherings abroad.

Whatever the explanation for the clearances, it is clear that by the end of the 18th century the landlords were losing the characteristics of chieftains or lairds on easygoing terms with the tenants. Driven by economic circumstances, the High- land chiefs were laying much more stress on rent and profit than on ancient loyal- ties. To the Highlanders of later generations, the horror of the people's clearances lay less in the way that it was done and more on the fact that it represented an enormous betrayal of the people by their own hereditary leaders. The point is made more forcibly by Paterson when she points out that those chieftains who were owed a vast weight of respect, affection, and obedience-those men, in stark defiance of all the bonds and obligations of kinship-sold out their own clansfolk for cash (Paterson, 1981).

This discussion can briefly be summarized by saying that (a) by the end of the 19th century much of the traditional way of life had disintegrated, (b) much of the old Celtic culture and way of life had virtually been destroyed by a wave of repression after the 1745 rebellion, (c) many of the cultural traditions were exported with the emigr6 overseas, (d) what evolved instead was a predominantly class-based system in which land was a source of capital gain rather than a community resource, and (e) many of the Highland elite began to reflect the old way of life and identify with a more cosmopolitan society and consequently Lowland values and ideologies.

Cultural Transformation

The decline in the fortunes of sheep, the increasing wealth of the metropolitan sectors of capital, the emergence of the new captains of industry, and the enmeshment of land ownership with financial capital led to the Highlanders' becoming increasingly dependent upon a social elite. One cannot claim there was a direct causal link between the financial difficulties in letting and stocking sheep walks; but in association with the glorification of the Highlands as a sporting playground for a certain social elite, it can certainly be argued that the Victorian period led to different forms of resource exploitation that contributed to both the

advance of a metropolitan culture and continuing tension and conflict between landowners and Highland tenantry (Gray, 1957).

According to the Earl of Halmesbury, who offered sporting rights on Harris for only f 25, it was in 1833 that the interest in Highland deer forests as sporting estates first began. During the 1840s the sporting estates received royal approval with the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Dnunmond Castle in 1842 (Jarvie, 1986). The demand for Highland deer forests and the rent from sporting revenue continued to increase through the 1850s and 1860s. The source of this revenue seems to have been predominantly the southern aristocracy. In 1857 Lord Gifford, Lord Elcho, Lord Loughborough, Lord Cork, and Earl Spencer all visited Blackmount Forest. As wealth accumulated in the south and the area available to sport in England declined, the Highland sporting estates attracted a flow of capital against which the local sheep-farming tenants could not compete despite conflict, tension, resistance, and struggle.

What was particularly significant about this sporting landlord phenomenon was the emergence of individuals with economic and social power alongside the traditional aristocracy. Indeed, the emergence of the sporting landlord tradition might in no small way be compared to Veblen's fieory of the Leisure Class (1953). Veblen's central themes of ownership of property, "man in his best estate," and leisure consumption as a means of acquiring social status are all pertinent to the Highland landlord situation. The Highlands had become part of the cultural capital of the rich. Highland sport meant much more than social status. It could also be interpreted as a means of acquiring financial status in the sense that only those with financial security and expendable resources could compete. Yet it was not only on the sporting shoot but also at the Highland Gatherings that much of the wheeling and dealing of the capitalist enterprise would appear to occur.

A number of Highland Society Gatherings had been firmly established by the middle of the 19th century. One of the earliest Society Gatherings took place not in the Highlands but at Falkirk in 178 1. In 18 19 the St. Fillans Society promot- ed a full-scale Highland Games with piping, dancing, and athletics. The first Crieff Games took place on the 18th of August, 1870, the same year as the first Comrie games. The Braemar Wrights Society which began in 1817 was reconstituted as the Braemar Highland Society in 1826. Yet it was not until 1832 that the first athletic competitions were incorporated into the proceedings of the Braemar High- land Gathering. Indeed while piping, dancing, the wearing of Highland dress, and many other artifacts from the traditional way of life were important aspects of many early 19th-century Highland Gatherings, popular sports such as tossing the caber and hill races did not figure greatly in the early Highland Society Gatherings.

The Highland Societies emerged in the late 18th and early 19th century in response to the widespread destruction of Celtic culture after Culloden. The paradox was that many of those people who were responsible for the destruction of the old social order in the Highlands were the same people who became the guardians and promoters of Celtic culture at a later stage. Following the repeal of the Act of Proscription in 1782, the wearing of Highland dress again became popular. The revival of interest in Highland dress culminated in the visit of George IV, in full Highland dress, to Edinburgh in 1822. Yet it should not be forgotten that while the romantic storybook glens of the Lowlands and the south were just


beginning, the real glens of the north were still being emptied as Highland people were still being evicted from the land. Nor should it be forgotten that different meanings were attributed to the new Highland Gatherings. For instance, while tartan appeared in its many artificial forms at these Gatherings, as mentioned earlier, there is little evidence to suggest that the common people ever resumed the habit.

While the original Highland Gatherings existed for a number of reasons within the traditional order and were firmly rooted within the popular culture of the Highlands before 1745, the object of many 19th-century Highland Gather- ings was to provide a social function on the calendar of the landed gentry. The general meeting of the Argyllshire Gathering reported in the Oban Times on the 30th of April, 1872, that the object of the Gathering was the promotion of such a meeting. Membership qualification was to be generally restricted to the landowners of Argyllshire, and their sons and brothers, and only in exceptional cases would the committee consider other nominations. The report of the minutes went on to add the following:

A Ball was to be held annually at such time and place as may be determined upon at the Spring General Meeting; tickets to be one guinea for Gentlemen and half a guinea for Ladies.

Further evidence of the social composition of these early Highland Society Gatherings can be found in the minutes of the Inverness Northern Gathering. The minutes from the first meeting clearly indicate that its inception dates precisely from the 1 lth of June, 1788. Consider some of the following extracts that were passed at this inaugural convention:

(1) That an Annual Meeting of the Gentlemen, Ladies, and their Families, shall be held in this place for the space of one week, to commence on the last Mon- day of October and thereafter on the last Monday of October yearly, and that for the purpose of promoting a social intercourse.

(2) That the meeting shall be named the Northern Meeting. (3) That the whole company, Ladies and Gentlemen, do dine together, and that

it is to be understood as a Regulation that they do all come to the table dressed for the Ball in the evening.

By 1831 the vice-presidents of the Braemar Highland Society included Lord Elcho, Sir David Kinlock, Sir Thomas Lauder, and Sir William Curnming- all titled landowners. In 1832 another landowner, the Marquis of Caermarthen, presented each of his gamekeepers with a complete Highland Costume of his own Dunblane tartan. Between 1840 and 1914, the Highland Games became increasingly enmeshed with the royal patronage of Queen Victoria and the subsequent romanticism of Balmorality . Queen Victoria first patronized the Braemar Gathering in 1848. By 1866 this particular event became known as the Braemar Royal High- land Gathering. The event has since become synonymous with loyalism and royalism. During Queen Victoria's reign, Highland dress again became a statutory mode of attire at the Games. Accessories that would have struck the old High-

landers as amazing were incorporated into the outfit. The Balmoral tartan was produced, as were a number of other tartans. In all of this invention of tradition, what is significant is that a romantic, sentimental ideology helped to rewrite and redefine the past.

Certainly, since 1900 to the present day the modem Highland Gatherings have undergone a number of changes; they have witnessed increased profession- alism, standardization of rules, development of the Gatherings into a worldwide sporting spectacle, and the increasing bureaucratization of procedures. The professional circuit for competitors came under the auspices of the Scottish Games As- sociation in 1946. The Highland Games circuit now includes a vast number of venues including those at Luss, Inverary, Caithness, Elgin, Dingwall, Trossachs, Airth, Aboyne, Assynt, and Perth, to name but a few. Prizes in some instances range between 2100 and 2200 for first place. The 1986 constitution of the Scot- tish Games Association points out that the objectives of the Association include (a) to encourage and foster the highest standard of professional athletics, (b) to lay down and enforce rules and regulations covering all aspects of professional athletics, and (c) to assist in the improvement of management of Highland Games and sports meetings.

Commenting on the development of the Crieff Highland Games, Webster (1973) argues that progress and change can be seen in a number of ways:

in the prize list, where it was once a book of Osslar's poems or a sword belt, until now when a prize-winner's money can go to three figures. Change can also be seen in special events-from a boat race to Loch Earn to free falling from aeroplanes. Where travel to the games was once mainly by horses, we now have cars and jets bringing overseas competitors and spectators.

The emergence of the professional Highland Gatherings helped to integrate this Highland tradition-into the marketplace and legitimate the phenomenon as an area of open competition and commercial activity. It would be misleading and indeed incorrect to argue that such progress should be equated with any form of meritocracy. The modem Highland Gatherings, argues Webster, provide the opportunity for laird, crofter, shepherd, and athletes in general to meet on equal terms and keep alive the best traditions of the past. Yet it can be argued that the Highland Gatherings can hardly be regarded as a graphic symbol of meritocracy. At the level of participation, competitors reflect a hierarchy of occupations, each one having a limited or expendable amount of resources at his or her behest. Fur- thermore, in terms of influence and control, even a modest perusal of the social composition of many Highland Gathering committees will reveal that the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Huntley, the Duke of Fife, Sir Iain Colquhoun, and many other titled landowners still exert a considerable degree of influence in terms of patronage, influence, and control of the present Highland Gatherings.

Despite the inception of the Highlands and Islands Development Board in 1965 and the emergence of an offshore oil industry, the Highlands remain one of the most undeveloped, remote, and sparsely populated regions within the Brit- ish social formation. One of the most significant statements in Orr's work is that control over land use, either through fiscal or statutory means, is extremely limited. A landowner can still make fundamental changes without having to consult local


or indeed national opinion. A proprietor today can clear 50,000 acres of sheep and convert the land to deer forests almost as easily as his 19th-century counter- part. In essence the power of those who own and control the land is as great as ever, and although statutory groups with a specific Highland remit have been brought into being, centralist control still lies at the heart of some of the contemporary problems facing the Highland social formation.

To return to the modem Highland Gatherings, one final point to be made is that they have become increasingly dependent upon tartanry and the romantic view of the emigre. Yet there is a very real danger of basking in the crofting, clannish image of the past, the implication being that the political, social, and economic climate basically has not changed and that the old tactics and demands used in the past would work today. There are many lessons to be learned from the past, but not if these lessons are divorced from the social reality and social context within which they were experienced. The romantic cultural identity of the past is perpetuated through such cultural forms as the Highland Gatherings. What is required is not an identity based on a Highland fairytale but one that engages social reality and understands the harsh realities of the clearances, the development of Scotland as a sporting playground, and the underdevelopment of the Highlands. If history is remembered, then there is no satisfaction to be gained from that experience.

Conclusions

Throughout this paper, I have attempted to illustrate that it is not necessary to view Highland sporting forms as meaningless objects of sociological inquiry. An analysis of the Highland Gatherings situated within the broader context of history and social development is capable of providing a great deal of informa- tion concerning class tensions, cultural transformation, and the selection of tradition. While I have refrained here from situating this analysis within a more theoretical framework, the questions that have been asked and the problems posed have been guided by various theoretical concerns such as dependency, underdevelopment, and cultural transformation.

Finally, this paper has attempted to outline various interrelated phases in the development of the Scottish Highland Gatherings. Broadly speaking, these refer to four stages. The first stage lasted from at least the 16th century until the middle of the 18th century when many of the antecedent forms of today's modern Highland Gatherings existed within a violent, patriarchal, impoverished, and traditional Highland way of life. The second stage lasted from about 1740 to 1850 when much of this traditional way of life was either banned or destroyed. A number of Highland traditions were transported with the emigr6 to Canada and America. The paradoxical situation developed by the end of the 18th century when many of the people responsible for the destruction of Celtic culture became the guardians of its existence, albeit in a romantic form. The third stage lasted from about 1840 to 1914 when the Gatherings became popular and respectable sporting events. The patronage bestowed on the Highland Gatherings by Queen Victoria marked the beginning of a period when the tradition became associated with loyalism, royalism and, in particular, Balmorality. In the wake of this development, the Highlands became a playground for the sporting rich. The fourth

stage lasted from about 1900 to the present when the professional Gatherings helped to integrate the tradition into the marketplace and legitimate the phenomenon as an area of open competition and commercial activity. The Gatherings became increasingly bureaucratized, standardized, and dependent upon a romantic cultural identity divorced from the social context in which such traditions were origi- nally experienced.

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Highland Gatherings, Sport, and Social Class€¦ · Highland Gatherings, Sport, and Social Class Grant Jarvie Leeds Polytechnic This paper takes as its central focus the development