Highland games "Cowal Games", held in Dunoon, Scotland, every August, is the largest Highland games in the world, attracting around 3,500 competitors and somewhere in the region of 23,000 spectators from around the globe. Worldwide, however, it is exceeded in terms of spectators by two gatherings in the United States: the estimated 30,000 that attend Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina and the even larger gathering—the largest in the Northern Hemisphere—that has taken place every year since 1866. This event is currently held on Labor Day weekend in Pleasanton, California, and their Sesquicentennial Games held on September 5–6, 2015, attracted record crowds close
MV Cowal spent her last five years. From 1974 to 1977, she assisted with a contract to service McAlpine's oil platform construction yard at Ardyne. After this ended, she retired from the Rothesay service on 20 May 1977 and was laid up at Greenock's East India Harbour from early June 1977. MV Cowal MV "Cowal" was a hoist-loading vehicle ferry introduced by Caledonian Steam Packet Company in 1954. She spent the whole of her 24 years with Calmac on the Upper Clyde crossings. MV "Cowal" was the second of a trio of vehicle vessels ordered in 1951 to modernise the Clyde fleet.