The Stirling Highland Games was a massive success with a crowd of 5000 visiting on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Hotly contested track and field events as well as traditional highland dancing kept the visitors entertained at Stirling Sports Village while food and drink was also on offer to make sure everyone stayed refreshed on a warm day.

The event was officially opened by chieftain Michael Goodfellow, Olympic silver medalist and local resident, as well as Stirling Council Provost Mike Robbins at 12noon. Among the spectators were a number of overseas visitors who had the chance to take part in three open-to-all foot races for kids, women and men.

The Alloa Bowmar Pipe Band was present to entertain with several piping performances and Tullibody’s Willie Bates managed to win the 800m run after he battled to the finish line.

The Provost told the Advertiser: “The highland games are a big issue in Stirling because it’s a means bringing in people from other parts of Scotland, the wider UK and as you see here today, there are many many other visitors from much further afield. We have visitors from France, Germany, Holland and there are a number of people from mainland China.

“We are delighted to see them all here and clearly, that’s gonna boost our economy in the short term at least, and looking further ahead, this event is built year on year and we are hoping that in the next couple of years it will probably double in size and may have to relocate to an even bigger venue than we’ve got here today.” Mr Robbins added that he was “absolutely delighted” to be at the event with the sun shining and the rain staying off and said that there was a huge number of people who came to see the races.

“It is looking really, really good, I’ve got to say it’s a testament to the work of Matt McGrandles and his team, they’ve put this together on a shoestring budget and they’ve done a fabulous job.” Event organiser Matt McGrandles said: “It was an absolutely great day for visitors to the area as well as the highland games. We had more online ticket sales again this year with the majority of overseas visitors planning at least nine months in advance.

“Our numbers were considerably up in participants with a record 140 entrants for highland dancing which is run by Miss Anna Bain, our highland dancing convener.

“The City of Stirling is a huge attraction to overseas visitors and with the historic setting it makes for a perfect visit. With the games now being seen as one the area’s major event attractions it allows them to include it in their itinerary and experience a traditional highland games in Scotland.

“We made an impromptu decision to run kids’ races and overseas visitors’ races on the day which proved to be an overwhelming success with in the region of 150 in the kids’ races, 70 runners and 50 runners respectively in the male and female overseas races.” Matt said that he is already planning next year’s event as it takes him and his committee a huge amount of time to raise the £25,000 required.

He thanked his community partners, including Specsavers Stirling, Maxxium UK, Scottish Wool Centre, Active Stirling, Stirling and Bridge of Allan Round Table and Barrat Homes.

He added: “Without doubt a mention needs to go to our community partners for their valued ongoing financial support they provide, but this year’s success would not have happened without the support from Stirling Council, Food and Drink Scotland and Event Scotland whose funding helped us deliver one of the best games to date.” Matt revealed that he hopes to take the games stateside next year to be part of the New York City Tartan Week.