Courtesy of Virginia Scottish Games and Festival

Virginia Scottish Games and Festival

Break out the bagpipes this Labor Day weekend at the Scottish Games and Festival. A state rich in Scottish lineage—over 80 percent of Appalachian families are of Scottish descent—Virginia’s games celebrate a people who found refuge in mountains deemed impassable by the British during the 18th century. Olympic-style sporting events, including the hammer toss, pit kilt-clad men against one another as over 20,000 attendees sip Scottish beer from the sidelines. –CM / vascottishgames.org

(August 2015)