Athletics at the Portland Highland Games
For centuries, “heavy weights” have been competing in the physically demanding, crowd-pleasing Highland Games! Traditionally intended to demonstrate a warrior’s strength, stamina, accuracy, and agility, many of these events reflect not only a warrior’s feat of arms, but also their professional trades, such as the fisherman’s “putting the stone”, the miners “throwing the hammer”, the farmers “tossing the weights and sheaf” and the woodsman “tossing the caber”. Today, both men and women compete in these challenging events. Come watch the original “extreme” athletes as they toss the 96-pound Portland stone harvested from the Sandy River; swing and let fly a 22-pound Scottish Hammer; launch a 16-pound stone like a shot put; throw a set of steel weights overhead as high as humanly possible; and run and toss a caber – a log measuring approximately 20-feet and weighing nearly 150-pounds!