Grandfather Mountain Highland Games
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games is a Highland games event that has been held annually since 1956 at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina. Celebrating the history and culture of Scots in North Carolina, it is among the first and largest modern Highland games established in the United States. Competitions and displays take place in Scottish styles of piping, drumming, costume, dance, and traditional sports.
History
Highland games in North Carolina
The Scottish people have a long and rich history in the state of North Carolina. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Highland Clearances left many Scottish clans with no home. During the time after the clearances, North Carolina became one of the most popular destinations. The local government in North Carolina urged Highland Scots to come to North Carolina by offering them land and tax exemptions. At first, many groups kept to the eastern shores of North Carolina, but as populations in the states rose, many went west in search of farm land and more space. During the revolutionary war, Scottish immigrants fought on both sides. The most famous Scottish resident of North Carolina was Flora Macdonald, who immigrated the then-colony after the battle of Culloden and lived in Harnett County from 1774 to 1778.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grandfather Mountain Highland Games” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.