Written by tanja-sdb on December 27, 2017
Caledonian Games and New Year’s Day in New Zealand
Research StoryThe lusty sports of “Caledonia, stern and wild” have been celebrated in prose and verse by the greatest masters of both. They have a peculiar charm of their own. The combination of massive strength with deerlike agility, which is characteristic of the proficient Highland athlete, is seldom to be found in the athletes of other
Written by tanja-sdb on December 15, 2014
The Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society
Research StoryMany Highland Scots, on moving to the urban centres of the Lowlands, established clubs and societies there. What is a little-known fact, however, is that Lowland Scots too utilised associationalism in this way, for instance when having moved from rural areas to cities. In Glasgow, for instance, the Dumfriesshire Society was very active. The Society
Written by tanja-sdb on April 4, 2012
Happy Easter – Scottish Style
Research StoryAt the end of April 1905, self-proclaimed Traveller wrote a letter to the editor of the Manawatu Standard, commenting on the Caledonian Games that had been held in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on Easter Monday. ‘Having a spare day here on my tour through the Colony’, Traveller wrote, ‘I sauntered down to your athletic meeting
Written by tanja-sdb on January 29, 2012
The 148th Turakina Highland Games
Research StoryIt was my great pleasure to visit the Turakina Highland Games last Saturday — the 148th Games, making them New Zealand’s longest-running Highland Games. It was in early January 1864 that the residents of Turakina and the nearby villages first gathered for Highland Games. The first Games were not held on the Turakina Domain, however, but on
Written by tanja-sdb on January 23, 2012
Burns Night in New Zealand
Research StoryWhen members of the Dunedin Burns Club and its friends gathered in 1906 to celebrate the 147th birthday of Scotland’s national bard, they did so ‘with mirth and song and joyous acclamations’. The Club’s choir and the Dunedin Pipe Band enlivened the proceedings, offering musical entertainment between the many toasts and speeches that were delivered.