This was the second year in which Winnipeg held its kilt skate indoors. This proved more comfortable and reliable in a city where, some years, skaters braved temperatures of 40-below and another year the skate had to be cancelled because warm weather made the outdoor ice unsafe. Indoor events meant that skaters could eschew the need for warm clothing, and dress in whatever attire helped add to the festivities.
Read MoreAlthough the thermometer has been above freezing for most of the past weeks, in recent days, winter has come back with a vengeance. The morning of the kilt skate dawned with temperatures of minus-25 with the wind chill, and a blizzard forecast for that evening. But none of this stopped the intrepid skaters, many of whom have been coming out year after year ever since Ottawa hosted its first kilt skate to celebrate the bicentennial of Sir John A. Macdonald in 2015.
Read MoreLast year, kilt skating as a way to celebrate Scottish culture crossed the international border with the inaugural Tartan Kilt Skate NYC. On Sir John A. Macdonald’s 205th birthday this year, the phenomenon jumped across the Atlantic with Tartan Kilt Skate Dublin. With family and friends cheering them on, a small but enthusiastic group gathered on ice, with more family and friends cheering them on.
Read MoreAnd today, on Sir John A. Macdonald Day, we’re pleased to announce the latest addition to the kilt skate family. The town of Fergus, Ontario, will hold its first kilt skate on Sunday, February 16, at the Centre Wellington Sportsplex. Check the events page for more details. The kilt skate is being organized by the Fergus Scottish Festival which has been celebrating Scottish culture and hosting Highland games since 1946.
Read MoreDUBLIN, January 9, 2020. Ahead of the first-ever Tartan Kilt Skate Dublin, scheduled for Saturday, January 11, the managers of South Dublin On Ice have offered a price discount to “anyone wearing a kilt or tartan who acts any way Canadian.”
Read MoreThe first-ever “Tartan Kilt Skate – Dublin” will take place at South Dublin on Ice, Tallaght Stadium, on Saturday, January 11, from 8 p.m. The date is significant, says Canadian organizer Don Cummer. “It’s the 205th birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald, the architect of Canada’s Confederation and our first Prime Minister. Years ago, we began celebrating his birthday at my home in Ottawa by skating on the Rideau Canal. Now the kilt skate has gone international.”
Read MoreAcross Canada, communities will vie for the title of “Kilt Skate Capital of Canada” awarded by the website www.kiltskate.com. Last year, the laurels went to Glengarry – two townships in Eastern Ontario that worked together to host a skate in the village of Maxville. In the summer, that town is noted for its annual Highland Games and North American Pipe Band Championships, estimated to be one of the largest Highland games in the world.
Read MoreEach year, we look forward to the Tutored Whisky Tasting that Emmett Hossack organizes on behalf of the Scottish Society of Ottawa (SSO). It’s held on the Sunday closest to the feast day of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, and it serves as the launch of SSO’s two-month long Scottish Festival. This year, the weekend also corresponds with the opening of the City of Ottawa refrigerated outdoor rinks. Since the Lansdowne Skating Court. is just a few hundred yards from the tutored whisky tasting at Milestones Grill, it was also a perfect opportunity to begin this winter’s kilt skating.
Read MoreIn 2018, the counties of Glengarry introduced an important innovation to the kilt skate phenomenon. For the first time, a skate was held in an indoor arena, combined with a social full of music, food and beverages and lots of fellowship in the warmth of an arena hall. Glengarry kept the event indoors again in 2019, and within a few days, a video of the skating had 200,000 likes on Facebook.
Read MoreBut by the 13th century, a distinctive culture was indeed evolving in the Highlands, where clan chiefs would confer lands upon warriors in exchange for their services. By the 17th century the stronger clans had overwhelmed the weaker and were able to defy efforts by the monarchs in the Lowlands (who had become monarchs of England as well) to assert control. At this time, the plaid had emerged as Highland garb.
Read MoreFor some parishioners, the Church is a faith community; for others, it’s a social justice action group. By now, few are surprised to find that, for some others, the Church is a real estate development organization with certain tax advantages. But as some at the Sunday gathering pointed out: the church is not a building. The church is the people who gather to worship and to serve God through their works.
Read MoreWhen Canada purchased the HBC’s western territories in 1870, the firm’s vaccination efforts had slackened considerably and Gimli, Man., suffered a smallpox outbreak in 1876 among Icelandic settlers and nearby natives. This reappearance posed an existential threat to plans for opening the West to widespread settlement, and Ottawa swiftly appointed Dr. D.W.J. Hagarty as medical superintendent for the region with the monumental task of vaccinating the entire Indigenous population. Annual Indian Affairs reports describe in detail the seriousness with which this task was engaged, as some communities actually achieved the desired 100 per cent vaccination rate.
Read MoreThe Glengarry counties (North and South) are branded “the Celtic Heart of Ontario.” It wasn’t hard to see why on Saturday, February 23, when about 150 kilted and tartaned enthusiasts showed up at Maxville and District Sports Complex. A piper and drummer took to the ice.
Read MoreThis winter has been one of the coldest in memory — one of the snowiest as well. Nowhere is the cold more biting than on the cities of the plains. On Sunday, February 10, both Saskatoon and Calgary celebrated their fifth annual Great Canadian Kilt Skate. Not necessarily with “bare knees and ice” — not this year. But with customary Scottish fortitude and sense of fun.
Read MoreThe kilt skate phenomenon made a spectacular jump over the Canada-U.S. border and has landed a Salchow in midtown Manhattan. The first-ever Tartan Kilt Skate NYC was held on February 2 — a day that found New Yorkers experiencing another Canadian import: the polar vor
Read MoreThe kilt skate phenomenon continues to grow. An event that began as a house party has now expanded to include the City of Lethbridge on the southern prairies of Alberta.
Read MoreHosting a kilt skate outdoors leaves it vulnerable to the vagaries of weather. For the second year in a row, extreme weather warnings in Montreal have forced the St. Andrew’s Society to postpone for a week. The Great Canadian Kilt Skate is rescheduled for Saturday, January 26, 2-4 p.m.
Read MoreDue to a social media hiccup, an erroneous message went out on some platforms, We confirm that the Tartan Kilt Skate in New York City will certainly take place as scheduled on February 2 at the iconic Bryant Park.
Read MoreSunday’s Great Canadian Kilt Skate was one of the best attended that Winnipeg has seen.
Read More
across canada, communities host kilt skates to celebrate scotland’s contribution to our multicultural fabric.
