Dunedin Highland Games


 

Come and Join us...

...In April 2014 at

 Highlander Park...

...for a day of beautiful crafts, feats of athletic strength, dazzling dancing, a wee bit of family history, exceptional music and delicious Scottish, Irish and British foods!!!

 

The Dunedin Highland Games were implemented in 1965 to raise funds to support the three Scottish bands of Dunedin:


The City of Dunedin Pipe Band

The Dunedin High School Scottish Highlander Band

The Dunedin Highland Middle School Band

...and to improve, develop and maintain the standards and quality of Dunedin's Highland games and associated activities. The Games and Festival also serve to entertain the public while informing them of the Scottish culture. These funds will ensure the continuation of the games into the future for the pleasure of the attendees and the participants.



WHATS NEW:

It is with great sadness that we recently learned that our good friend and longtime committee member, B.J. Sammon, passed away.

B.J. had been part of the Dunedin Highland Games Committee for many years, holding several positions, Clan Chairman and Vice President being just 2 of them. B.J. was also a Chief of the day a few years ago.

He was a tireless worker, leader and mentor to many on the committee and we along with the wider Scottish community will miss him greatly. Our thoughts are with his wife Eileen and his family.

RIP Dear B.J.

 

Thanks to everyone that attended the 47th Annual Dunedin Highland Games. You helped make this one of the most special. Hope to see you all again on November 23rd at the Dunedin Celtic Festival.

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 Scottish families originally settled the City of Dunedin in 1899. Two Scotsmen, J.O. Douglas and James Sumerville named the settlement Dunedin, the original name of Edinburgh, their hometown in Scotland.

In 1957 a new Junior High School was built near Highland Avenue in Dunedin. Officials in charge named it Dunedin Highland Junior High (now Dunedin Highland Middle), in honor of James Sumerville and J.O.Douglas. Attending the opening ceremonies as a reporter, Bob Longstreet, later mayor of Dunedin, had an idea. His newspaper's owner was a Scottish Lord, Roy Thompson. Soon a gift set of bagpipes was on its way from Scotland, which was accepted by students Ann Catoe and Patricia Cornwell. Matt Forsyth, a piper extraordinaire who just moved here from Scotland, offered his services and the Highlanders were on their way! The students moved up to the newly built Dunedin High School a few years later and now there were two pipe bands! Soon after, the City formed its own band formed of mostly Dunedin High graduates.

A young Matt Forsyth.


Many honors have been showered upon the Pipers of Dunedin! They have been invited to play all over the world, including Scotland, Prince Edward Island, Washington, D.C., and Ireland. Very competitive, Dunedin's Pipe Bands have won many awards.

Through their continued efforts and devotion, they have added sparkle to our small city and strengthened the bonds between our town and the ancestral home of many of Dunedin's people: Scotland.

Bagpipes are intrinsically woven into the fabric of Dunedin, as intimately as the wool in the tartan plaids worn by the pipers themselves! Citizens all love the pipe music regardless of the venue it is played in by our bands. Any function in Dunedin is not complete without a piper!

In June of 1964 the City of Dunedin invited Stirling, Scotland to join in the People-to-People program as a Sister City of Dunedin. In December of that year the City of Stirling reciprocated and the intertwining of the two cities had begun. In March of 1998 the Provost of Stirling, John Paterson JP represented Stirling at the Dunedin Highland Games. In the summer of 1998 Dunedin Mayor Tom Anderson visited Stirling, and the reciprocal visits continue today.

In May of 2000, we joined as a second sister city to the Scottish-Canadian village of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, a city very much like ours, with strong Scottish heritage, relying on tourism to the coast.