SINCE 1832
A Hundred
Thousand Welcomes
The cherished Scottish tradition,
spanning generations
The Braemar Gathering is always held on the first Saturday in September at The Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland.
The Braemar Gathering
— A Royal Occasion
While there have been Gatherings of one sort or another at Braemar since the days of King Malcolm Canmore over nine hundred years ago, the Gathering has been run in its present form since 1832. During much of that time, large crowds have come each year to acclaim their Monarch as Chieftain of the Braemar Gathering.
Traditionally, the organisers of the Gathering were the Braemar Highland Society — originally established as the Braemar Wright Society in July 1815 and granted Royal status by Queen Victoria in 1866. It is the oldest surviving Friendly Society in the UK.
In 2002 the Society established the Braemar Royal Highland Charity (BRHC), a wholly owned subsidiary, to undertake all of its charitable activities — including organising the annual Braemar Gathering event.
Since 1848, The Gathering has been attended regularly by the reigning Monarch and members of the wider Royal Family. The foot races at the Gathering are the world’s oldest, having been organised on a regular basis since 1832.
The Braemar Royal
Highland Charity — What We Do
The Braemar Royal Highland Charity (BRHC) organises and runs the Gathering and manages the Duke of Rothesay Highland Games Pavilion and Visitor Centre, which opened to the public in March 2019. It houses heritage items dating back to the very first games that took place under the auspices of the Society in 1832.
The charitable aims of the BRHC are:
To foster and promote local community development
To educate the general public about the history, traditions, sports, language and culture and heritage of Scotland
To organise the Braemar Gathering
To organise sporting and other recreational events and make them available to all comers
The
Kindred
Gatherings
ABOYNE
LONACH
The Kindred Gatherings were formed in the 1970s and involved Aboyne, Ballater, Lonach and Braemar. The committees shared views and discussed entry prices, judges fees and other topics common to their events. This proved to be very useful and sociable, binding the events more closely together.
OUR SPONSORS
The Gathering is organised by a large number of volunteers, but without the support of sponsors and others it would simply not be possible to meet the costs of maintaining and investing in our beautiful park and facilities, or those of staging such a large public event each year.
If you would like to discuss opportunities for sponsoring the Braemar Gathering, please get in touch.