Piping Hot

Caroline DiNova isn’t a Scot, but she does love the sound of bagpipes.

“They’re sort of sad,” says DiNova, of Costa Mesa. “Of course, they’re pretty, too. I’ve always been into them, even when I was a kid.”

DiNova had plenty of opportunity to indulge her passion at the 67th Scottish Highland Gathering and Festival. The event, sponsored by the Orange County branch of the United Scottish Society Inc., was held Saturday and Sunday at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Besides the strains of bagpipes that could be heard throughout the two-day festival, there was traditional dancing, athletic displays and all manner of Scottish music. Among the performers were fiddler Alasdair Fraser, Celtic rock band Clandestine, troubadour Alex Beaton and the Canadian Scottish Regiment’s Pipes and Drums group.

“I spent most of the time watching [the dances] and following the music, which was wonderful,” DiNova says, adding that her husband, Robert, “was more into the feats” of strength. They included the hammer throw, in which contestants heave a 22-pound square weight. The contest originated more than a century ago when villagers tested their mettle by throwing a blacksmith’s sledgehammer.

But what impressed Robert DiNova the most was the caber toss. In this one, participants let loose a 20-foot wooden pole weighing about 120 pounds. But the goal is accuracy, not distance.

“I wouldn’t be able to pick up one of those, much less get it in the air,” says Robert DiNova. “You could see they had skill as well as power.”

For more information on the United Scottish Society and upcoming events, call (949) 509-7710.