My family and I have been invited by the CNNA to attend the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games as one of their honoured guests next July. I thought it was a tremendous news because they were such a small clan and up against 102 clans participating every year. I understand from the President of the Clan Napier Society (CNS) that its sister organization, the Clan Napier North America (CNNA) has won its fifth Parade of Tartan ‘Award of Excellence’ since 1985, fighting off over 102 clans at the 59 th Annual Grandfather Mountain Highland Games (1997, 2001, 2005, 20!). Parade of Tartan, Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, USA – July 2014 He will be joined by others, among them Francis Napier, who wrote: Next year Jamie Macnab of Macnab is the Guest of Honour – and the Macnabs are extremely pleased that Jamie is reinvigorating the Society. It is extremely good therapy if you are suffering from low self esteem! But it is a pleasure and the visitors are proud to be there and extremely grateful (and surprised) that we would take the time and trouble to travel from Scotland to be with them. My father once said, while sitting in a cart following McGoofy round Epcot Centre in Florida – honestly – that if we had a dollar for every time we had our photo taken we would be very rich indeed.
At almost every one we were offered refreshments (both liquid – mainly very good whisky – and food). It takes fully an hour to do a ‘circuit’ of the Games, past all the Clan Tents. Some may say that the variety of Scottish dress on display is an embarrassment and there should be more education about to dress, but the enthusiasm completely over-shadows the need for correctness. And attracts between 40 and 50,000 people. It takes place at about 5,000 feet in a natural amphitheatre in the mountains of North Carolina. There are, however, few things that can prepare you for the extraordinary atmosphere and scale of Grandfather. I have been Guest of Honour at several Highland Games over the years and accompanied my father to two or three while he was still alive (good practice, I think).
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