Picture special: Corby Highland Gathering 2024

The Highland Gathering is an event like no other, dedicated to celebrating the town’s Scottish heritage. The annual day out attracts locals and visitors from across the UK and beyond.

This year’s Gathering, a two-day event, brought a weekend filled with vibrant games, traditional music, stalls and the All England Highland Dancing Championships, as well as the return of the popular pipe-band competition.

There was also the World Porridge Eating Championship which was won by Corby man Jason Jacob.

This event is a cornerstone of community spirit, heritage, and entertainment for people of all ages.

Mark Pengelly, one of the organisers of the Corby Highland Gathering, said: “As one of the organisers I want to pay a special thanks to the whole team: Suzanne Lilly, Amanda Tilley, Amanda Gibson, Lewis Harman and Steve Chisholm for all the work they did, also to all the sponsors and also the great Corby public and those from further afield who came along on the two days.

"Feedback has been really, really positive from all those who came along, some have already been asking the date for next year's event which we will be releasing soon.

"I’d also like to thank all the competitors, the pipe bands, the dancers, all the stall holders and everybody else who put things on over the weekend – an absolutely brilliant Corby weekend.

"Work on next year’s show started yesterday afternoon.”

Corby’s new MP, Lee Barron, was in attendance at the event. He said: “It’s really good to be amongst the community.

"We're starting to set up now and it’s taken a bit of time. It's only been around nine days but we’re looking at offices. We want them to be public facing so people can see their MP, know they’re accessible, and then make sure we're getting to events like this and showing the communities in the constituency that they’ve got an MP who’s part of the community, who’s accessible, who works with them and is there for them. I just think that’s crucial and really important.”

Former Scottish international footballer and ex-Celtic and Liverpool defender, Gary Gillespie, was invited down to be this year’s chieftain.

Gary said: “It’s my first time ever down in Corby, obviously I played for Coventry for many a year but I never ventured this far east.

"It's been an enjoyable day, I think the weather makes a big difference, it’s been a really good turnout as well.

"All credit to the people that put this on because they’re not getting paid for it, it’s through volunteers and it's a lot of hard work but hard work that certainly pays off. It’s always great to see the pipe bands and the Highland dancers, so I’ve had a really good day.”