Kilts, bagpipes and plenty of Scottish fun

There were kilts, bagpipes, plenty of tartan and all the trappings of Scottish culture at the Canberra Burns Club annual Highland Gathering on Saturday in Kambah.

Emma St Vincent, 14, Harriet Ewing, 7, and Ellie McGregor 13, compete in the Highland dancers competition. Picture: Jamila Toderas

The ACT Pipe Band Championships were held on Saturday featuring bands from across the country, including one of Australia's oldest pipe bands, the City of Melbourne Highland Pipe Band. The Old Scotch Pipes and Drums band was in attendance, also from Melbourne. Pipe Major David Forbes said the band was thrilled to return to Canberra for what they thought was a great event.

"We've come up three years in a row now and it's probably one of our favourite contests," Mr Forbes said.

"It's really well-run, it's compact, there are a lot of activities and there's good crowd support."

"We really like it up here, although it's a bit cold today, the past two years have been blue skies."

Mr Forbes said his band played four times in different grades for about five minutes each time.

He said there are pipe bands in every state, and every second year at the Australian Championships there are up to 70 bands performing. He's being playing the bagpipes since he was a wee lad.

The Old Scotch Pipes and Drums are a group of mainly former students of the Scotch college at Melbourne. Picture: Jamila Toderas

"I learnt the pipes at school and I played at the school band," he said.

"I had a little break in between but I've pretty well played, well this is my 30^th year now."

In addition to the music there was performances of highland dancing and the highland hustle - a workout to highland dance and ceilidh steps.

The display events of the day included the Lifting of the Stones, which is a competition that sees five large stones ranging in weight from 90 kilograms to 145 kilograms lifted from lightest to heaviest on to the top of wooden barrel.

The person who does this the quickest is the winner.

Another display event was the Weight for Height challenge, where a box weighing about 25 kilograms is tossed over a bar that is progressively raised to eliminate competitors.

The fun continues on Sunday with the solo piping and drumming competition being held at the Australian War Memorial from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

The Sunday event is expected to attract more than 50 pipers and drummers of differing skill levels.