Fancy throwing around a lump of food across a hundred feet as a new pastime? Sounds really unusual isn’t it? That’s what haggis hurling is all about. As creators of experience, we are constantly looking for inspiration and trying out new things. So we decided to give haggis hurling a try.

Haggis hurling has been around for centuries. History has it that the sport originates from the hinterlands of Scotland. At noon time, the men would come down from the hills and stand on their side of the river, while the women would come up from the village, stand on the opposite side and hurl haggis luncheons across to their men folk. If the men failed to catch the haggis, they will have to go hungry the whole day until evening. Out of these humble beginnings, the sport of haggis hurling grew and today enthusiasts all over the world hold haggis hurling competitions.

A haggis is made up of sheep’s lung, heart, liver mixed together with oatmeal, onions, nutmeg and sprinkled with some salt and ground pepper. The ingredients are then stuffed into the sheep’s stomach.

Image of a haggis. Taken from http://john.pettigrew.org.uk/blog/archives/archive_2005-m02.php

Looks kind of gross, but looking at the ingredients the meal should be quite tasteful.

Of course, we didn’t use the real haggis. Our haggis is made up of dough wrapped in clip wrap. As long as it weighs about the same as the real haggis – about 500 grams to 1.5 pounds, we should be able to get close to the real experience.

You need a thrower and catcher for haggis hurling. As the name suggests, one person must throw the haggis and the catcher must catch it.

We did haggis hurling at a vacant football field at a private school. The field measurement for the sport is at least 100 feet, or 30 metres. The sport is judged on the basis of distance and accuracy. A split haggis is immediately disqualified, so the haggis must be thrown ‘gracefully’ – it’s more about technique than brute force.

Now the right way to throw the haggis is using the shot put technique while standing on an elevated platform, like a bench. The haggis felt light in my hands as I cradled it behind my neck just before the throw. I thought hey this should not be a problem for me. The record for haggis hurling is 180 feet! Mine was….15 metres. Still I thought it wasn’t so bad given that I’m not an athlete or even played any Scottish games before.

We had quite a bit of fun throwing the haggis from across the field and since we were on a roll, we decided to use other techniques. We placed the haggis in a sling net made up of jute rope. We then swung the haggis around to gain momentum and achieve a further distance when released. True enough, we could throw further…I threw mine at an added 5 metres (yes I know, please keep your sarcasms to yourself).

We even invited the kids from the school to comeby and try the sport. The kids had a whale of a time swinging, throwing and catching the haggis. They got pretty good at it and beat me so many times (can’t believe I lost to a bunch of 10 year olds). My catcher was good at catching but I wasn’t that great at throwing.

All in all, I enjoyed myself trying out the new sport with my colleagues and the kids. The merriment from the kids added to the excitement of the sport. I discovered that we have to let our inner child come out sometimes to play and discover new things. The more learning experience we go through, the more knowledgeable we become and thus making our lives more meaningful.