Scotland’s KBR activity will kick-off on Wednesday 1^st July, with a packed schedule across the month leading up to the Glasgow 2026 Opening Ceremony on Thursday 23^rd July.

The Baton Relay in Scotland has been reimagined for 2026, and will closely align with the activity currently taking place across the Commonwealth.

Each day the Baton will travel to events across the country to add to the celebrations and activity in the build-up to the Games.

Community groups and event organisers had the opportunity to nominate their event or activity to host the baton through Glasgow 2026’s All In programme.

Please note we do not anticipate the Baton being carried by Batonbearers through closed roads and streets, unless this is part of the activity planned by the event organiser.

All In is the national call to action for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. A Scotland‑wide movement inviting communities, schools, sports clubs, cultural and voluntary organisations and businesses to celebrate the Games in their own altogether brilliant way.  

Reaching from the Highlands to the Lowlands and every glen, town and shore in between, All In gives people the tools to create inclusive, locally-led activities and events that build excitement, pride and connection ahead of an unforgettable summer of sport.  

With free official branding, ready‑to‑use digital toolkits and opportunities for nationwide visibility, All In empowers supporters to get involved in a way that works for them and their communities, boosting skills, wellbeing and local impact. From town‑hall events to pub watchalongs, decorated shopfronts to family festivals…It’s our Games, your Games, a’body’s Games.  

Together, we’re All In for Glasgow 2026. 

Find out more about All In HERE

We want to reach the length and breadth of the country with our activity.

Unlike previous baton relay activities, we will not be travelling on a continuous route around the country. Instead the delivery team will be adopting a hub and spoke model, with a base in Glasgow and travelling across the country from there.

This should provide greater flexibility to incorporate events into our programme.  

Glasgow 2026 will be releasing more information on the coming weeks on how schools in Glasgow and beyond can incorporate baton activity into school activity.

We will not be running a Batonbearer nominations process. Instead we will work with the events selected to attend to identify worthy community heroes in their area that merit that recognition.

We will also be celebrating the achievements of Team Scotland athletes past and present and other notable Scottish and Commonwealth figures.

For the first time ever, every Commonwealth nation and territory will receive their own Baton for their celebrations and have been asked to customise and decorate this Baton to represent their culture.

All 74 Batons will be reunited at the Opening Ceremony of Glasgow 2026, where the Scotland Baton will be presented to His Majesty and the message read aloud to declare the Games open.

Inspired by the three Commonwealth Sport values – Humanity, Equality, Destiny – three interlocking pieces of sustainably sourced ash (a hardwood from Scotland) come together to create the Baton’s form. The negative spaces where the three pieces come together are a strong design feature – representing Commonwealth connections.

In a break with recent tradition and like the first ever Queen’s Baton Relay in Cardiff in 1958, the Baton takes more of a traditional baton shape.  It is simple and sustainable – with no complex electronics or chambers, and is a blank canvas, enabling the final design of each Baton to be crafted by the nation or territory it belongs to.

The Scotland Baton will contain a chamber for the King’s Message.  The King placed His Message into the Baton on 10th March 2025 when he launched the King’s Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace.  This Baton contains a cork chamber closure, emblazoned with a Saltire of wood, which will keep The Message safe and hidden until it is retrieved in July 2026.

Each of the other Batons has one single word from The King’s Message engraved onto it, taking the message far and wide across the Commonwealth until the full message is reunited at the Opening Ceremony for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The word on Scotland’s Baton is ‘gather’. Our Baton design and activities will be inspired by this.

We launched an open call for artists to express interest in decorating the Baton. More information can be found HERE

The Baton has been specially designed, engineered and handmade in Glasgow by skilled makers from a social enterprise named Galgael and master craftsman Tim Norman.  The Baton design celebrates the beauty of local natural, sustainable materials and creates a beautiful blank canvas for customisation.

The King’s Baton Relay is a Games tradition that celebrates, embraces and connects communities across the Commonwealth, as the countdown to the Commonwealth Games

It’s an epic journey across the world, with Batons visiting all 74 nations and territories of the Commonwealth, reaching the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Europe.  A Baton will be created for each nation and territory, for them to customise and decorate with their culture and creativity.

The Batons each carry part of a message from His Majesty King Charles III to the Commonwealth and its athletes.

The Relay began on 10 March 2025 at Buckingham Palace, where His Majesty King Charles III, as Head of the Commonwealth, placed His Message to the Commonwealth into the first Baton.

The Relay will last for 500 days. It began on 10 March 2025 and ends at the Glasgow 2026 Opening Ceremony on 23 July 2026.

The Relay will travel to every corner of the Commonwealth, visiting all 74 nations and territories on the journey to the Commonwealth Games.

As host Commonwealth Games Association, Commonwealth Games Scotland have the responsibility for coordinating activity involving the baton. 

We will be working in collaboration with a host of partner organisations, including Glasgow 2026, Commonwealth Sport, Scottish Government, sportscotland, Police Scotland and the Royal Commonwealth Society.