Events planned to mark John McLellan Dunoon’s 150th birth year

Pipe-Major John “Jock” McLellan of Dunoon is regarded universally as one of Highland piping’s greatest composers, and 150 years after his birth, events are in the works to celebrate his legacy throughout 2025.

The creator of such classics as “The Road to the Isles,” “South Hall,” “The Highland Brigade at Magersfontein,” “The Dream Valley of Glendarual,” and, of course “Lochanside,” the 3/4 march regarded as a masterpiece of melody and construction, will be feted at the Cowal Highland Gathering in August with a significant tribute in the form of a Juvenile Solo Piping Competition with the trophy donated by the Dunoon Argyll Pipe Band.

Also in August, the Burgh Hall in Dunoon will mark the anniversary by hosting a Pipe-Major John McLellan DCM exhibition featuring photos, original manuscripts and personal items from McLellan’s life. Dunoon’s Castle House Museum and the Dunoon Library will also celebrate McLellan with exhibitions of his life and contributions.

On July 31st and August 8th, respectively, the dates of McLellan’s death (1949) and birth (1875), impromptu gatherings of his fans and family members will take place at the John McLellan DCM Memorial in the Castle House Gardens in Dunoon.

On May 4, the Clyde Coast Strathspey & Reel Society will hold its annual Fiddlers’ Rally at the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock, Scotland, devoting one of its sets to honour John McLellan DCM and his music.

A special 150th-anniversary edition of The Bagpipe Music of John McLellan (1875-1949) will be released this spring. The anniversary collection will include several compositions that were not included in the original.

McLellan’s grand-nephew Duncan McGregor said, “A proposal has been put forward to set up a John McLellan DCM Heritage Trail in Dunoon, which will highlight places in the town where he stayed or often visited including Loch Loskin, the loch that inspired ‘Lochanside.'”

An anniversary event reportedly could happen at Piping Live! Glasgow International Festival of Piping, which begins on August 10th, two days after the great piper’s birthday.

John McLellan was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for bravery while serving with the Highland Light Infantry in the Boer War. He succeeded James Wilson, who succeeded fellow renowned composer Willie Lawrie as pipe-major of the 8th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in 1919. “DCM” often deservedly accompanies McLellan’s name, differentiating him from other prominent John Mac/McLellans in piping.

McLellan never married and had no children, but his more distant relatives populate the piping world, including James Henderson, former Pipe-Major of Grade 1 Babcock-Renfrew, and the elite solo piper and Inveraray & District Pipe-Sergeant Alasdair Henderson.