Thurso Gala Floats

The Thurso Gala Float parade was held last night in perfect conditions.  Of the 5 floats, 3 came from outwith Thurso (Castletown, Halkirk Young Farmers & Bower YF).  The Castletown float "What the Dickens" won the supreme award.  As usual their float was fantastic.

There were lots of foot collectors and I only caught a few of them.

Eann MacKintosh Cup Final

The Eann MacKintosh cup final was played at the Dammies today and Pentland Utd beat Castletown 3-0. Castletown had most of the play in the first half, but found Michael Gray in top form.  Ross Allan scored just on half-time.  Early in the second half, Tony Farquhar scored with a flashing header (1st pic) and Michael Steven scored a penalty.

Manager Duncan Gray got sent to the stands (2 yards from the dugout!) for shouting at the ref Graham Elder.

Castlehill Royal Visit

The Castletown Heritage Society asked me to take photos of the recent royal visit by Prince Charles (aka Duke of Rothesay in Scotland) to their Castlehill Heritage Centre.  With 3 other photographers and two camera crews also there, it was difficult to get the best position in the small rooms.

The use of flash was restricted, so a high ISO setting was needed (around 1250) and white balnace compensation for the fluorescent lights.

The Prince showed real interest and knowledge during the visit and the scheduled hour long visit lasted 1.5 hours.

Black Isle Show

Caithness riders did well at today's Black Isle Show. The show had over 500 horse entries. The supreme horse champion went to Stemster Millennium Bug owned by Lisa & Caroline Coghill and ridden today by Caroline (1st & 2nd pic). Caroline had to rush off at 6pm as she had to go to work - so no champagne!  It is the first time the Coghill family has won the Black Isle supreme.

In the ridden horse championship, 4 of the 7 riders were from Caithness. Caroline, Lisa on Diamond Geezer, Ruth Sutherland on The Puzzlemaster & Caitlin Bissett on our pony Eddiston May-Bee.  Lisa & Caroline swept the boards in the Arab and ridden horse sections.  Ruth won lots in the coloured sections and Caitlin won the Working Hunter pony championship. Sarah-Jane Ross was also in the ridden championship with Troy after winning the WH Horse championship.

There were lots of class winners from Caithness and it shows the very high standard in the County.

The weather was great for a change.  Very warm with lots of sunny spells.  There was only one shower around 4.30pm.

Halkirk Highland Games

The Halkirk Highland Games were held yesterday and the weather was poor for a change.  Very dull and lots of showers.  As I was the announcer, I was limited in what photos I could take of the action.

The last pic shows the winners of the 4 Scottish Championship events after being presented with their SGA medals by Games Chieftain John Thurso MP.  Bruce Aitken (2nd left) won the hammers, Craig Sinclair won the 28lb weight for distance and Craig Hardie won the 2000m cyle race.  The pic demonstrates how big the heavies are!  Bruce is 6'5" and Craig 6'4".  Bruce won the overall heavy championship and Craig the cycling championship.