Loch Lomond Games

I don’t know about anybody else but I always knew them as the Balloch Highland Games and it was only when I had to find forms for myself that I discovered that they were called the  Loch Lomond Games.   Mind you there are so many places called Balloch, from Cumbernauld to Inverness, that ‘Balloch Games’ could be anywhere.    They are excellent Games, better now since the arena and its surrounds were drained and reset with a drained hard standing base in 2000.   Prior to that the area turned into a quagmire in a rainy year; the Park was at one time used for the County Cross-Country championships and it was always a heavy trail to run.

The West Dunbarton local authority describes them as “a traditional Scottish Highland Games situated in the village of Balloch at the southern end of Loch Lomond.   The games were started in 1967 by a group of local business men with an outlay of £500 to promote tourism in the Balloch area and now has prize money of over £15000.   The games are now one of the top three Highland Games in Scotland hosting the Scottish Highland Games Association World Heavyweight Championship and the 80 metre Scottish Sprint Championship.   Other events include Running , Cycling, Wrestling, Tug o War and the traditional heavy events of Tossing the Caber, Weight over the Bar, Throwing the Hammer, Ball and Weight and the Highland Dancing with dancers from 4 year old beginners to adults.   The games are also the only Scottish games to host a Triathlon which starts with a 600 metre swim in Loch Lomond followed by a 12.8 km cycle and a 3 km run finishing in the Games arena.”