King Charles has been spotted enjoying a well-earned whisky at the Mey Highland Games in Caithness, keeping up one of his most cherished royal traditions in the far north of Scotland.
The King has held the title of Chieftain at the Mey Games since 2002, a role he took on following the death of the Queen Mother, who had been a devoted supporter of the event for decades. The games are held near the Castle of Mey, the Scottish retreat the Queen Mother famously rescued from ruin and which Charles has continued to maintain and visit regularly.
The Mey Highland Games are one of the smaller, more intimate gatherings on the Highland games calendar, but that is a big part of the appeal. Tucked away on the Caithness coast with views towards Orkney, the event has a genuine community feel that the bigger, more tourist-heavy games can sometimes struggle to match. For Charles, it has clearly become a highlight of his summer schedule year after year.
Attending as Chieftain is not just a ceremonial nod. Charles has consistently shown up, engaged with competitors and locals alike, and thrown himself into the spirit of the day. Watching the heavy events, cheering on the athletes, and yes, raising a dram of Scotch whisky, all of it part of what has become a proper royal tradition rather than a tick-box public appearance.
The games feature the classic Highland programme that fans of the sport know well. Tossing the caber, putting the stone, throwing the hammer and the weight over the bar all feature, alongside Highland dancing competitions and piping. Local athletes compete alongside some of the top names on the professional heavy events circuit, giving the day a mix of grassroots community sport and serious athletic competition.
For the people of Caithness, having the King turn up year after year clearly means a great deal. The area is remote by any measure, sitting at the very top of the Scottish mainland, and a royal visit of this kind brings attention and footfall to a part of Scotland that does not always make the headlines. The castle itself draws visitors from across the world, and the games add another reason to make the journey north.
Charles first developed his deep connection to this part of Scotland through his grandmother. The Queen Mother bought the Castle of Mey in 1952, just weeks after the death of King George VI, and spent years restoring it. She saw it as a personal sanctuary, somewhere away from the full weight of royal life, and that same quality seems to have passed down to Charles, who has spoken openly about how much the place means to him.
Since inheriting responsibility for the castle, he has worked to keep it open to the public and has supported the surrounding community in various ways. His attendance at the games each year is a visible and popular part of that commitment.
Whisky, of course, is never far from any proper Highland games occasion. Scotland produces some of the finest single malts on the planet, and Caithness sits within reach of several well-regarded distilleries. Whether the King was sipping something local or something from further afield, the image of him enjoying a dram in the northern sunshine is the kind of moment that tends to go down well with the Scottish public.
With his coronation now behind him and the early period of his reign taking shape, moments like this one at Mey offer a glimpse of the more relaxed, personal side of Charles as King. Away from the state occasions and the formal duties, here is a man doing something he genuinely enjoys, in a place he clearly loves, among people who are clearly glad to have him there.
The Mey Highland Games may not be the biggest event on the Scottish summer calendar, but for those who attend, and for the King himself, it seems to be one of the best.