'Operational difficulties' to blame for cancellation of Highland gathering
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Organisers of a Highland gathering in Easter Ross have been forced to shelve this year's event due to "operational difficulties" outside of their control.
Tain Highland Gathering, which was due to take place on Saturday August 13 this year, has been cancelled for a third successive year.
The committee decided to cancel the games after a number of set backs, citing a lack of available marquee tents to hold the event as one of the biggest issues.
Gathering organisers have confirmed that they will not be looking at a new date for 2022, and instead will now plan for the 2023 games.
The Tain games were last held in 2019, with both the 2020 and 2021 events postponed due to the Covid pandemic.
A representative of the committee said: "We are all very disappointed but decided to make the decision sooner rather than later as many folk, trade stands and the athletes taking part, are all making travel arrangements and factoring the day of the games into their plans.
"The biggest problem we encountered was we were unable to hire any marquees. Everything is booked solid and this is largely due to weddings being rescheduled after being cancelled during the Covid pandemic.
"We need the marquees for the craft tents, dancers and hospitality and if we were blessed with glorious sunshine all day, we could probably manage without them but we all know what the Scottish weather can be like.
"Thankfully we received a quote this morning for marquees for next year so hopefully everything will be good to go for 2023, but even they were saying they are about to close the diary for next year already."
Organisers offered their sincere apologies to supporters for any inconvenience caused.
