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The Cowal Highland Gathering is an annual Highland games event held in the Scottish town of Dunoon, Argyll, over the final weekend in August. Also known as the Cowal Games, it is the largest Highland Gathering in the world.

The first Cowal Games was held in Dunoon in 1894, and attracted fewer than 2,000 spectators. By 1901, attendances reached 5,000, and the first overseas competitor, an American athlete, took part.
1906 saw the introduction of a pipe band competition. In 1929, the first approaches from Scottish societies overseas were received, and this has continued as exiles the world over have turned to Dunoon for advice and practical assistance in setting up their own Gatherings.[1]




Pipe bands filing into the stadium for the salute to the chieftain and the award announcements.
After a break during the years of World War II, the first post-war Gathering, in 1946, attracted attendances of 28,000. However, the record attendance, to date at least, was in 1950 when 30,000 visitors attended, one of whom was then-Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
In 2000, changes to the Highland dancing format resulted in the Friday becoming a high-profile day, with the top dancers out to qualify for Saturday's finals. The Solo Bagpipe competition introduced a graded system. Shinty was reintroduced, attracting high-calibre competitions.
2003 saw Cowal extended to a three-day event with the introduction of the Scottish National Highland Dancing Championships and the five-kilometre Cowal Run.

The 2007 event saw controversy when it was announced that the committee had decided to abandon the track, athletic and shinty competitions. It was rumoured that this was due to pressure from the pipe bands to allow the crowd to come closer. A number of changes were introduced to the layout of the pipe band competition this year which allowed the spectators to get closer to the bands as they competed. These changes were well received by the piping community and spectators in general. 2007 also saw the introduction of the Ceilidh tent which was headlined by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers in 2008 and 2009. The tent has been very popular and is now a permanent addition to the event. The "controversy" was short lived as the new elements of the event and changes to layout were extremely positive with all elements of the crowd.