The Dutton Highland Games were a staple of the PPBSO’s Ontario games scene from when they started in 1951. The games ceased operation around 1990 [date TBC].
Anyone driving on the 401 highway west to the recent Kingsville-Essex games will have noticed signs for Dutton - just past London, about an hour and half drive west of Toronto.
Like many in Canada, the area was a place settled and largely built by Scottish immigrants. Among the most famous to have been born in the area is the famous economist, John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006), born Iona Station and attended Dutton High School.
Dutton Highland Games were on the third day in a row on the Ontario games calendar and it was only the very hardcore piper or drummer (with lots of energy and "gas money") who would manage the trifecta of Saturday, Maxville, Sunday, Montreal and the games on "holiday Monday", the 800 kilometre drive to Dutton from St Lambert, the home, then, of the legendary Montreal games (read more at www.pipebandsontario.org)