CNY Scottish Games return Aug. 11

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

For more than 75 years, lads and lassies of all ages have gathered on the second Saturday of August to blare their bagpipes, scarf down some haggis and casually toss some tree trunks around.

Those tree trunks, of course, are cabers — towering, tapered logs that athletes must flip to show their physical prowess. The caber toss is one of several activities available at the 77th annual CNY Scottish Games and Celtic Festival, which takes place Saturday, Aug. 11, at Long Branch Park in Liverpool.

“It’s very heritage- [and] family-oriented,” said Jack Heins, one of the festival organizers.

Heins celebrates his Scottish heritage not just at the festival, but year-round. He is the founder and pipe major of the Syracuse Highland Pipe Band. The band performs at weddings, funerals, parades and other local events.

The festival features competitions for bagpipers and drummers, Highland dancing and athletics as well. In addition to the aforementioned caber toss, the games include stone throwing and the sheath toss, in which the player must use a pitchfork to heave a sack of straw over a bar similar to a pole vault bar.

“The goal of these events is to move these heavy things from one place to another — sometimes precisely, other times not so much. This is accomplished by men with lumpy muscles wearing kilts,” reads the CNY Scottish Games’ website.

The CNY Scottish Games draw about 3,000 visitors each year, and almost two-thirds of them are repeat attendees. With the festival in its 77th year, many attendees have reached their golden years. To assist those with mobility issues, the festival has handicapped parking and golf carts on hand to shuttle patrons around.

“If you have trouble getting around, don’t let that stop you,” Heins said. “We’re trying to be a little more accommodating for our patrons that can’t get around that much.”

As they meander through the festival, guests can munch on traditional Scottish fare such as haggis, neeps and tatties. In English, that’s sheep’s stomach filled with other organs, onion and oatmeal, served with rutabagas and potatoes. For the faint of heart and stomach, shortbread and bridies (meat-filled pastries) are popular offerings as well.

Festivalgoers can enjoy performances from the McDonald School of Irish Dance and A Harmony of Harps. They can also visit with Highland cattle, a short, squat beef breed with long horns and shaggy mops that rival the early Beatles’ hairstyles.

“My mom’s from Scotland, so I love the Highland cattle,” Heins said.

The evening ends with a ceilidh, or a celebration with music. Charlie Zahm, a multi-instrumentalist who specializes in Celtic, maritime Nova Scotian and early American folk music, will perform. The star of the show, however, is the Causeway Giants, a Syracuse-based Celtic rock band.

“We’ve got so much local talent,” Heins said.

For Heins, who took up the bagpipes at age 15, the pipe and drums competitions are the most unforgettable part of the CNY Scottish Games.

“The massing of the bands is probably the most outstanding thing. You’ve got hundreds of pipers and drummers coming together,” Heins said. “That’s worth everything right there — it’s something that not a lot of people see.”