15. Caber Tossing is throwing a huge tree trunk while wearing a kilt
You know that strapping Scotsman with rippling muscles and a jaunty kilt inexplicably holding a tree trunk on your breakfast oats? He’s actually playing a sport. Caber Tossing, as the activity is known, is a traditional Scottish game, in which large men have to lob a 5.94-meter, 79-kilo tree trunk, known as a Caber, so that it flips and lands upright. Points are scored for how straight the Caber lands. It really is that simple. Except the tree weighs a tonne, is too tall to keep upright for long, and has one heavier end to make it even harder.
Caber Tossing is an ancient sport, first recorded back in 1574 but certainly much older. ‘Caber’ is actually a Gaelic word, and it is thought that the sport came from the need to toss tree trunks across Scotland’s many freezing waterways to let armies cross during battles. This is probably why accuracy rather than distance is the deciding factor in the modern Caber Toss event. Although it remains a staple of the annual Highland Games, Caber Tossing is played around the world, and in June 2018 a Canadian, Danny Frame, threw a record 18 Cabers in an astonishing 3 minutes.
