A UK-wide hunt has been launched for a Moray Highland Games trophy that was last awarded nearly a century ago.
Organisers of the Cabrach Highland Games are keen to find the Cabrach Rose Bowl before the staging of the 2024 event.
The prize, usually given to the top-performing athlete in the competition, was established in the 1920s but has been missing since the 1980s when it was tracked down to Coventry.
Cabrach hosted its own Highland Games from 1877 until 1935, when the village’s dwindling population made the event unviable.
However, the Cabrach Trust resurrected the event in July last year.
Now organisers hope to be able to award the Cabrach Rose Bowl at next year’s event, if they can track it down.
Charlie Murray, chairman of the Royal Scottish Highland Games Association, said: “The Cabrach Rose Bowl represents a key component of the history of Scottish Highland Games.
Cabrach Rose Bowl ‘culturally very significant’
“Silverware like this is steeped in the heritage of traditional Highland sport, and it is culturally very significant that such prizes remain as the reward for the finest athletes that grace our games.”
The prize has a long and storied history, having been given to the village in 1926 by John Harper, a native of Upper Cabrach.
Charles Taylor claimed the prize in its first year, lost it in 1927, and then reclaimed it in consecutive years to be awarded the bowl outright.
Having been lost for decades, it was finally traced to Charles’s eldest son Ron in Coventry in 1984.
‘We now need the traditional top prize’
However, since Ron died, the whereabouts of the bowl are a mystery.
Jonathan Christie, chief executive of the Cabrach Trust, said: “The aim of our charity is to breathe life back into the Cabrach after decades of depopulation and decline.
“We’ve started that process by creating a family-friendly destination to visit and become immersed in nature, and our project to deliver a new social enterprise distillery is in the midst of construction.
“We are committed to reintroducing the Cabrach Picnic and Games to the local calendar for people from near and far to enjoy.
“Having relaunched this important event, we now need the traditional top prize.
“We have a team working on relocating the Rose Bowl and would ask anyone with any inkling of its whereabouts to get in touch with us.”
Anyone with information can contact the trust at hello@cabrachtrust.org.
