This year, the kilt skate season was launched in two cities: one which has hosted kilt skates since the beginning; the other hosted a second annual event and we didn’t know about the first one!

With the 2024 kilt skate season wrapped up, and the ice all melted, it’s time to look back on a ten-year legacy of bragging rights as the Kilt Skate Capital of Canada.

With the 2024 kilt skate season wrapped up, and the ice all melted, it’s time to look back on a ten-year legacy of bragging rights as the Kilt Skate Capital of Canada.

This year — 2024 — marks the tenth year in which skaters across Canada have celebrated their Scottish heritage by taking to the ice in tartans and kilts. Back in 2015, five cities (Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Calgary) hosted kilt skates as a way to celebrate the bicentennial of the birthday of Canada’s first Prime Minister. This year, 13 communities posted their plans for a kilt skate event and 10 went on to host an event.

But 2024 was an unusually warm winter in parts of North America, and this provided challenges to several organizers. Unsafe ice conditions led to cancellations of the kilt skates in Concord NH and Orillia ON.

Again this year, a mild winter made the originally-scheduled date untenable. But rather than cancel the event outright, Winnipeg (current holder of bragging rights as Kilt Skate Capital of Canada) took a chance on rescheduling for later in February. As Evelyn Mitchell, organizer of Winnipeg’s Great Canadian Kilt Skate, reports, the gamble paid off:

Age doesn’t matter: with a flag in your hand and your skates on your feet, the years fall away and we can all be children again.

“The event was a great success having many skaters with or without kilts who enjoyed celebrating our Scottish heritage. The event started with the South Glengarry Pipe Band entertaining the crowd with some of their traditional Scottish tunes.

The Antigonish Highland Society reports from their 2nd annual Great Canadian Kilted Skate, which they hosted on Heritage Day, February 19th, at the Antigonish Arena.

Having spent the past few winters in Ireland, I was delighted to be in Ottawa this year for its tenth annual Great Canadian Kilt Skate. The date corresponded with the last weekend of Ottawa’s annual Winterlude carnival, so the Ice Hog mascots — suitably tartaned up — were on hand to welcome kilt skaters.

“It was a small kilt skate for the first one in the Renfrew County,” reports Whitney Brooks, the event organizer. “But, the community came together and showed up!”

For the second straight year, Scots and Scots-at-heart in Moncton, New Brunswick, have celebrated their cultural roots at the annual Polarfest winter carnival.

We had an amazing day. The weather was perfect, sunny and +4C for the 10th Annual Calgary Kilt Skate.

It was a wonderfully warm sunny day in Toronto and the Evergreen Brickworks Weekend Market was in full swing when a small but mighty group of kilted skaters took to the ice.

On Family Sunday, February 18, the skating rink at Lansdowne Park will once again celebrate Scotland’s contribution to Canada by exposing bare knees to the elements of a Canadian winter.   

This year on January 28, the St. Andrew's Society returned to Verdun to launch the 10th season of the Great Canadian Kilt Skate.

This year is shaping up for another exceptional kilt skate season. New communities are signing up to host kilt skate events. As of Rabbie Burns Day 2024, the calendar includes…

One of the best things about the Great Canadian Kilt Skate (GCKS) is the wide differences among the communities and their approach to kilt skating events. Large or small, indoors or outdoors, new or established: each skate is unique and special.

It’s been a remarkable kilt skate season. With public health protocols lifted, community events returned. Never in the nine-year history of the Great Canadian Kilt Skate have we seen so many new organizations join the skate family: in Lumsden, Brampton, Moncton, Quebec City, Vancouver and Antigonish.