Montrose Highland Games organisers have taken the painful decision to bring the curtain down on the event’s 40-year history.
After a washed out 2011 and a further cancellation last year, the games committee has now confirmed the plug has been pulled on the event, which was held in the first week of August.
Rising costs, the gamble of hard work being washed away by unpredictable weather and a lack of enthusiasm have been blamed for the decision to drop the games from the Angus summer calendar.
“It’s a sign of the times really and it was down to red tape and finance,” games chairwoman Robina Addison said.
“We were well short of what we needed and getting sponsorship isn’t easy.”
She said the committee would have had to find £10,000 to stage this year’s event and face the risk of losing that if conditions forced another last-minute cancellation.
Montrose councillor Paul Valentine said: “While I haven’t spoken to the group recently, I know from previous discussions that there were issues over matters such as the rising costs regarding policing and up-front expenses, which was money lost to them if the games did not go ahead.
“I’m sad that it has gone for another year but I would be quite happy to discuss with the games committee anything that we might be able to do to help them.
“But we can’t help with things like policing costs or the weather and basically, they were having to take a gamble that the weather was going to be OK.
“Montrose still has a lot of good things going on, but the Highland games was a well-attended and well-run event which people turned out to, so it’s sad to see it go.”
The first Montrose games was staged on the Mid Links in 1859 and ran until 1929. After a half century gap, the first gathering of the modern era took place in 1979.