The Highland Games have been a classic part of Scottish culture for centuries.
Many stories have been told purporting to explain the origins of highland games:-
A method of finding the best warriors to fight for the clan chieftain.
Lochearnhead (Scottish Gaelic: Ceann Loch Eireann) is a small town on the A84 Stirling to Crianlarich road at the foot of Glen Ogle.
It is 14 miles north of the Highland Boundary Fault.
It is situated at the western end of Loch Earn where the A85 road from Crieff meets the A84.
Loch Earn Water Sports Club is the new name for Lochearnhead Water Ski Club which previously operated at Lochearnhead Water Sports Centre during 2008 and 2009. Active Scotland Outdoor Activities is proud to support this club for the 4th consecutive year. The club operates from its new location at Active Scotland's Outdoor Activities base at the Clachan Cottage Hotel. The Loch Earn Water Sports Club is the only offical water ski and wakeboarding school on Loch Earn.
Loch Earn Water Sports Club offers instruction for all levels of ability for lochearnhead water sports activities.
Motorized water sports began on Lochearn during the summer of 1955 with the discovery of an elderly Chris Craft which had been put up on blocks in 1939.
It had acted as a rescue boat for John Cobb during his speed trials on Loch Ness. This was bought by Ewen Cameron and brought to Lochearn.
The first person towed behind it was Ann Cameron on the bonnet of a morris minor 1000 pulled by a car tow rope.A member of the Cameron family came home from a summer holiday with a pair of skis and the knowledge of how to do it, that was skiing on it’s way.
By the spring of 1956 Ewen Cameron had formed a club with members paying a debenture of £50.00 (a lot of money then) and soon had enough members to enable them to buy two 100E Albatrosses and go into business.
A young man, Marc Cloutier, the reigning Canadian Champion, and Isla Henderson, from Dundee, came to the club from Ruislip(at this point the centre of waterskiing in Britain) so the club was now well equipped to teach anyone who so wished to learn for the princely sum of 2/6d per lesson.
back then there were no wetsuits, woolly sweaters were often worn, and life jackets were bought from ships being broken up at Rosyth, so these were rather heavy and cumbersome—in fact probably more dangerous than they were worth. People froze but they persevered.
The 100E’s were fine work horses, but with larger men like Ewen Cameron and others of that ilk, they were having the guts pulled out of them, so the club invested in another Albatross, this time with a Coventry Climax engine with twin carbs.
Tommy MacGregor from Balquhidder was the club mechanic, he went down to visit Ray Wright engineering and Archie Peace who designed these boats in Norfolk. He spent some time learning everything he could from Archie in order to keep the club boats serviceable.
In August a privately owned, “modern” Chris Craft arrived and was a great privilege to be offered a ski behind this monster.
Everything was fun, they invented and learnt all sorts, including parachute flying behind boats with parachutes donated by some of the members from Leuchars, kites to which you attached yourself, discs on which you could rotate, boards on which one would sit and a second would stand, jumping, slalom and tricks.
By the end of that first summer friends from down south had discovered our club and became interested in holding competitions on Lochearn as this was the only stretch of water without restrictions at that time, also Lochearnhead had hotels, B&B, camping and caravanning facilities on the Lochside. The Club were talked into accepting to organise the Scottish Native championships (1957) to be followed by the British Waterski Championships over the next two years.
By this time Clubs had been formed throughout Scotland. Fife, Slamannon, Urgle Gurgle (St Fillans), Aberdeen, Lochwinnoch, Loch Lomond to name some of them.
In 1963 the Northern European Championships was held at Lochearnhead under the auspices of the world water ski Association. Eleven countries Ski Associations and competitors from eleven countries also competed. The event was sponsored by the Daily Telegraph, Bells whisky and many other local firms. Over 10,000 people came to spectate and every Hotel, B&B and guest house from Callander to Comrie and Killin were occupied by officials and competitors. TV cameras were present and the event was recorded. All the fields at the Lochearnhead end became a tented village with sponsors and trade tents selling their wares.
Fancy Dress BBQs(rare in those days), Ceilidhs in Lochearnhead and Grand Balls in London all brought in funds to strengthen the club. Champions were made and practiced at Lochearn, these included Davey “mighty mouse” Nicol, Dougal Campbell, Duncan Croall, Johnny Victory, Jackie Fulton and the Johnston family, all three of them!! Bill, David and Sheila made their mark in European and world circles, they still have connections with the village today and still ski on the loch. Many times world champion, Mike Hazlewood, first learnt to ski at Lochearn, as did one time ladies world champion, Phillipa Roberts.
In 1969 The Italians were unable to take on the finals of the European championships, at the very last minute Lochearnhead water ski club were asked to take it on. With a top class committee and members the event happened and was a tremendous success. The club even had it’s own world class judges, Ewen and Ann Cameron, Lewis Drysdale and Bill Boggan.
Boating on the Loch in the early days was controlled by a “dictatorship” headed by an efficient retired banker from St Fillans. He patrolled the Loch at week-ends and any boat launching for a day’s jolly was charged 10/-. If the boat launched did not get a ticket first, these were sold in the village shops, no one would permit them to land until such time they paid up.
Water skiing on Loch Earn was given the royal seal of approval when Prince Philip heard what was happening and arrived by helicopter to see for himself what was going on.
Sailing nearly always was restricted to the east end on the loch by St Fillans due to the fact that the winds were usually westerlies and therefore windier and rougher at that end of the Loch.
Once there was a full time sailing school run by Major Campbell- Crawford and a very successful sailing club which still functions.
As time went on more and more people bought their own boats and the ski club numbers diminished and eventually packed in.
Top competition skiing came to an end when skiing became more money orientated and all skiers wanted to ski in waters of the same conditions as the previous skiers and this just could not be guaranteed on Loch Earn.
Water Skiing is still very much a part of Loch life and enjoyed by hundreds every year. Sadly, no world champions starting out on Loch Earn but with the support of Active Scotland Outdoor Activities, who knows!
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