A waterlogged part of the games field at Scone Palace this evening.
A waterlogged part of the games field at Scone Palace this evening.

Perth Highland Games, due to take place this Sunday (11th) has been cancelled. Organisers, the RSPBA’s Dundee, Perth and Angus, said the ground conditions are waterlogged at the Scone Palace site.

Paul McAndrew, Chairman of the branch said in a statement: “Unfortunately, following a site visit this evening [Wednesday] with the Perth Highland Games Committee, Scone Palace staff and representatives from [the] branch, we have jointly taken the reluctant decision to cancel the 2019 Perth Games due to current ground conditions, and the adverse weather conditions which are being forecast for the remainder of this week.

“The Branch Secretary will contact individual bands and drum majors to arrange full refunds over the next week.”

Some 74 band performances were due to take place across the grades with some bands playing up.

Ironically, the decision to move to Scone Palace two years ago was due to flooding on the previous venues in the centre of Perth, firstly the South Inch and also at the North Inch. In 2017 the games had to be cancelled due to ground conditions on the South Inch.

Earlier this year, the new committee behind Perth Games cancelled the solo piping competitions citing an inexperienced committee and cost.