Andrew Douglas has some good ideas on where to go, what to do, for a weekend or a day away.

NEXT month the event season moves into top gear and there is hardly a corner of the country without some kind of attraction. From a ploughing match in Orkney to a vintage vehicle rally in Dunbar can be added the Edinburgh International Festival, Military Tattoo, numerous Highland gatherings and, of course, Scotland's Alternative Games at which the world Gird 'n' Cleek championship is held.

These games, now known as the Parton Games, take place in the small village of that name near Castle Douglas on Sunday, August 4. Their beginnings came about when Mungo Bryson was looking through a collection of ageing farm machinery in the locality and stumbled across an old, rusty gird 'n' cleek. The find recalled childhood memories of running barefoot ``girding'' with his friends - a pastime that had as much popularity as the current fashion for skateboarding.

The gird is an iron hoop about three feet in diameter and the driving cleek is the part used for guiding. Mungo took his find to a local blacksmith who made up a few more sets, and they were introduced to local youngsters during the Jubilee celebrations where their appearance caused quite a stir. Tales of the sets being taken to school and parked by the school railings were soon being recounted by an older generation.

Mungo spotted the potential and soon gird 'n' cleeks became a part of village life. Matters did not rest there, however, and gird 'n' cleeks were soon joined by other games that were popular in the first half of the century. Golf, bowls and other pastimes were laid aside and villagers would meet in a field beside Loch Ken to ``play games''.

Hurlin' the Curlin' Stane, Flingin' the Herd's Bunnet, Spinnin' the Peerie, Tossin' the Sheaf, Balmaclellan Skittles and the Swee-Tree have since become events that are treated with respect and which are the subject of serious contest. What many of the games are is fairly obvious, but what is peculiar about Balmaclellan Skittles and the Swee-Tree?

It is said that the original Balmaclellan Skittles were uncovered in a peat bog in 1834 after lying buried for hundreds of years. The nine skittles and a ball were made of oak and being hand made were not quite uniform in size. They were put in the charge of exciseman Joseph Tait who eventually gave them to Sir Walter Scott.

More than 150 years were to pass before the skittles were traced by farmer Bill Blyth of Blowplain Farm, Balmaclellan to a basement at the Scottish National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh. He commissioned a replica set from Joe Sassoon, a craftsman from Kirkcudbright, and it is these that are brought out once a year for the Parton Games. The game is played just as it was in medieval times. The skittles are set up in a triangular design and from a distance of 30 yards the ball is delivered with some gusto along the ground as in green bowls.

And the Swee-Tree? This old-style macho game appeared last year for the first time. The two contestants sit on the ground facing each other, feet against feet with a brush shank held in place by their toes. At the ``off'' instruction they each grab the shank, the winner being he who brings the other to an upright position first.

Prizes at Parton Games follow the gold, silver and bronze route but that is as far as they could be compared with Atlanta's Olympics. The gold prize is not a medal but a haggis; the silver, a clootie dumpling, and keeping food to the fore, the third prize is a mutton pie, hot, and ready to eat.