The Scottish athletic event called the caber toss grew out of the traditional way trees were cleared from land in Scotland, and traces its roots to war tactics used centuries ago.
In the event, contestants flip an 18- to 20-foot pole that weights 105-120 pounds. Crowds cheer, and judges rate the tosses for accuracy – a far cry from the caber toss’ pragmatic roots.
“A lot of time it was to clear a field for farming,” Shellie Miller said. “They would clean off the branches and throw the poles onto a cart or out-of-the-way piles. The other theory is that cabers were used in war as implements to get across moats or climb up castle walls or a fortress of some kind.”
Miller is athletic director of the 2005 U.S./International Scottish Athletic Championships, which are part of the 29th-annual Longs Peak Scottish/Irish Highland Festival.
More than 70,000 people are expected to visit the festival this weekend in Estes Park.
There also will be plenty of music, including several pipe bands.
Stage performers range from the Celtic rock band Seven Nations to the folk duo Skean Dubh. There also will be jousting, food, more than 1,000 Scottish and Irish dancers, clan exhibitions, dog completions and more than 100 Celtic importers and crafters.
“A lot of people ask what are Scottish athletics, and I usually tell them it is like a medieval track and field meet,” Miller said.
The professional men’s competition, which is by invitation only, features the seven top U.S. Scottish athletes and Canada’s top three.
“You’d have to travel to the world championships next year in Glasgow, Scotland, to see a better group of guys,” Miller said.
The professionals compete in seven events Saturday, with 72 amateur athletes in six categories facing off Saturday and Sunday.
The other six events are sheaf toss, putting the stone, tossing a 56-pound for height, the Scottish hammer throw and the 28- and 56-pound throws.
Sheaf tossing will be familiar to anyone who ever gathered hay. Competitors toss a 20-pound sheaf, which is a burlap bag stuffed with straw. They use a pitchfork to throw the sheaf as high as they can over a bar. (The usual height range is 30-34 feet.) In the workaday world of yore, farmers used the same method to stack hay in barn lofts.
“The crowd loves this event,” Miller said. ” But sometimes they mishear the announcer, and they think he says ‘sheep,’ as in ‘baaa.’ So one year we had a woolly stuffed animal sheep that we throw just for giggles and laughs.”
Professionals use a 30-pound stone for putting, which requires athletes to throw the stone much like a shot put but without an approach. The same rule applies to the hammer throw.
Miller said one school of thought is that stone putting grew out of clan gatherings where each clan would put up its strongest man to see who could throw the heaviest stone. Look for tosses of 38 to 42 feet.
The 56-pound throw for height also probably came out of clan competition. The weight has an attached ring. Contestants grab the weight by the ring and throw it over a bar; look for heights of 15-19 feet.
The 16-pound Scottish hammer does not have a cable handle as those used in the Olympics do.
“It has a straight handle,” Miller said. “The handle traditionally would be made of rattan. We actually use PVC pipe. The throwing action is like a continuation swing of a golf club, only with both hands going all the way around yourself with a rotation of the hips.”
Look alive – throws in that event can sail 140-145 feet.
Staff writer Ed Will can be reached at 303-820-1694 or ewill@denverpost.com.
—————————————-
Longs Peak Highland Festival
SCOTTISH-IRISH CULTURE |Stanley Park Fairgrounds, 1209 Manford Ave., Estes Park, noon-5 p.m. today, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday | DAILY, $5 AND $20, ADULT EVENT PASS, $45|800-903-7837 or scotfest.com
