Caber Toss

Overview

The signature event of the Scottish Highland Games. A competitor lifts a tapered tree trunk, runs with it, and tosses it so it flips end over end.

The most common misunderstanding: it isn't scored on distance. It's scored on how straight the caber falls.

How far this page is checked. There's no single rulebook for Highland Games. This page follows Scottish Athletics' suggested rules for heavy events at amateur Highland Games, which it proposed as guidelines alongside the UK Athletics rules. Professional games and games elsewhere run their own rules, so check with the organisers.

1. The caber

A tree trunk, tapered. The Scottish-style rule gives a length of 4 to 5 metres, a thick end 25–35 cm across and a rounded thin end 10–15 cm across. The same document's implement table allows much bigger cabers for open men, up to 21 ft, so sizes vary from games to games.

If nobody manages to toss the caber in the first round, the judges may saw a piece off the thick end and start again, repeating until someone succeeds.

2. The toss

• You may toss from either shoulder.
• You get three attempts.
• The ground should be level, with a mark showing the rough point of delivery and direction. The rules recommend delivering between lines 10 m apart.
• After the toss you must stand still until the judge releases you.

3. Scoring

Two imaginary lines decide everything:

• The base line runs from where you delivered the caber, through the point where its thick end first hits the ground, and on beyond.
• The vertical line rises straight up from where the thick end hit.

A perfect toss: the thin end passes through the vertical and falls exactly along the extended base line, straight away from you. People call this 12 o'clock.

A valid toss: the thin end passes through the vertical and falls within 90 degrees of that line. Anything else, including a caber that falls back toward you, is a trial without result.

Placings: a perfect toss wins. After that, tosses rank by how close the thin end fell to the extended base line.

Because the base line runs through where the caber lands, the "12 o'clock" direction follows the throw, not the field.

Judges: at least two. One stands behind the tosser to judge how close the thin end fell to the line. The other stands at right angles to check that the thin end passed through the vertical. If there's only one caber, officials and competitors may agree to record the angle of each attempt to decide placings.

4. The other heavy events

The same rules cover the other traditional heavy events. Implements for open men are listed as:

Event	Open men
Shot	7.26 kg or 16 lb
Hammer	16 lb, on a 4 ft 2 in shaft
Weight for distance	28 lb
Weight for height	56 lb

Commonly argued

• It's scored on direction, not distance.
• 12 o'clock is judged from the line of the throw, not the field.
• The caber has to go over. If it doesn't pass the vertical, the attempt counts for nothing.
• Three attempts each.
• If nobody can turn it, they cut it shorter.