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Mark Wilson is in New Hampshire, with the first of two special editions of Kist from the annual Highland Games at Loon Mountain.

John Carmichael from Glasgow says there are no highland games in Scotland to compare with this three-day event, with its mixture of pipe bands, entertainment, heavy athletics and clan gatherings.

State Governor Margaret Hassan tells Mark about her family’s Scottish connections, and Lezlie Webster, Pipe Major of New Hampshire Pipes & Drums, talks about her own musical family, and introduces Mark to piper Ian Stewart, originally from Monaghan.

Van McLeod is Commissioner for Cultural Resources in New Hampshire, but he went to school in Enniskillen, and he tells Mark about his love of Northern Ireland.

Executive Director Patti Nisco says that over 21,000 people come to the games weekend, both for the spectacle and for top-class musicians such as Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, who tell Mark about their love of ‘following the fiddle’.

And to close this first visit to the NH Highland Games, Master of Ceremonies, Arthur McCarra says to Mark that he believes that the majority of people of Scottish descent in America came here by way of Ulster.