King Charles kicked off his annual summer migration to Scotland on the first Saturday of August, taking his customary seat as Chieftain of the Mey Highland Games in Caithness. Seated just behind him under a marquee at the John O'Groats Showground was Lady Sarah Chatto, his first cousin and the daughter of the late Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II's sister. Town & Country

The games are a small, deeply local affair — roughly 2,000 spectators each year — but they carry a heavy family history. The inaugural event was held in 1970 to mark the 70th birthday of Charles's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Charles inherited the Chieftain role from her in 2002 and has returned almost every year since. The Castle of Mey, the Queen Mother's Scottish home, sits nearby; Charles typically spends the early part of August there before moving on to Balmoral Castle, the royal family's official summer residence, later in the month.

This year's program ran to type in the best way. Charles watched caber tossing — the signature Highland Games event in which competitors heave a tall wooden pole end over end — and took in performances from Scottish dancing troupes and pipe bands. A team of firefighters won the tug of war, and Charles reportedly congratulated them personally after their victory. He also spent time with the Wounded Highlanders, a group of injured military veterans who compete in adaptive events at the games. Town & Country

Lady Sarah Chatto's presence is becoming a fixture. She joined Charles at the same event last year, and in 2019 she and her son Samuel Chatto were photographed taking in the games together. There is no official royal residence at the Mey games — no state ceremony, no Court Circular entry that reads like a diplomatic occasion. The Court Circular, the palace's daily record of official engagements, logs Charles's attendance simply: the King arrived as Chieftain and was received by the chairman, Mr. Andrew Sinclair. Royal.uk

What gives the Mey games their texture is the sheer ordinariness of a monarch sitting under a tent in northern Scotland watching people throw a log. Charles has umpired tug-of-war competitions here in the past. A portrait commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of the Castle of Mey, unveiled last September by the Princess Royal — Charles's sister, Anne — depicts him wearing the King Charles III tartan and holding a handcrafted stick gifted by the games. Royal.uk

The Sovereign Grant Annual Report for 2024–25 — the public accounting of taxpayer funding for royal duties — notes that the King and Queen attended both the Mey Games and the Braemar Gathering, another Highland event held later in the summer. Royal.uk

For an American audience, the closest parallel might be a governor showing up to a county fair and refereeing the pie-eating contest — except the county fair was founded for your grandmother, and your grandmother was the Queen.