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On a day of intermittent sun and showers in the shadow of Dumbarton Rock at Levengrove Park, Field Marshal Montgomery were awarded the 2023 Scottish Championship in a medley competition against nine other Grade 1 contestants. The band successfully defended its 2022 Scottish title and also won its second major drumming title under new Leading-Drummer Gareth McLees.
When the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association invested well more than one-million pounds on an extensive renovation of its Victoria-era Glasgow headquarters, including new facilities to host teaching programs like its five-day “Wake Up Shake Up” summer school, the world’s most powerful piping and drumming association apparently forgot to apportion […]
With each of the first two RSPBA majors seeing very different results, the winners of the 2023 Scottish Championships at Dumbarton, Scotland, will be pretty much anyone’s guess. Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia won the UK Championship on June 10th, while Inveraray & District took down the European later […]
A kindly benefactor has contributed a total of £50,000 to support a £1,000 prize purse for the Senior Piobaireachd competition annually at the Lonach Highland Games in Scotland for the next 50 years. There will be much larger cash prizes for the top-three finishers: 1st: £500, 2nd: £300, and 3rd […]
Portland Metro continued their run of success by winning both Grade 2 band events at the two-day Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games in hot, dry conditions at the Enumclaw Expo Center. Hawai’i Caledonian from the state of Hawaii made their competitive debut a huge success by winning Grade 5.
Australia now has two Grade 1 bands after Pipe Bands Australia officially upgraded the Melbourne area-based Hawthorn, joining the Western Australia Police Pipe Band at the premier level. Under Pipe-Major Matt Fraser and Leading-Drummer Steven Shedden, Hawthorn was dominant in Grade 2 over the 2022-’23 antipodean season. “It’s a big […]
On the Friday evening before the annual Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games, the Don MacRae Pub Piping Casual Hornpipe & Jig with contestants not having to wear itchy wool unless they actually prefer it. There are two groups: A comprises Open and Grade 1 pipers, while the B group is open to those who compete in amateur Grade 2, 3 or 4. The event is held at a pub and contestants are encouraged to get creative with their performance.
Arisaig, Scotland – July 26, 2023 – With the striking Sgùrr of Eigg in the distance, Fred Morrison gained the overall Canon Iain Gillies Memorial Trophy as well as the Arisaig Challenge Cup for Piobaireachd at the annual Arisaig Highland Games on Scotland’s spectacular West Highland coast. By winning both […]
The parched grounds of Mount Hood Community College in the hipster capital of the world were the site of the annual Portland Highland Games, where Portland Metro won both of the Grade 2 band events and Alastair Lee of Surrey, British Columbia, was victorious in all of the Open solo piping competitions. Lee received the inaugural Colin MacKenzie Memorial Award for Open Piobaireachd, which was presented by MacKenzie’s daughters, Shona and Holly. Temperatures exceeded 90°F.
It might well be bigger than total prize purse than the Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championship, as a collective $7,800 will once again be offered to the prizewinners at the 2023 Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada) competitions, part of the Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville, Ontario, on Friday, August […]
In Part 4, the final instalment, MacLellan discusses reedmaking, the Competing Pipers Association, his father’s music, what he’d still like to do in piping and, of course, his other avocation in life: golf.
Sherwood Park, Alberta – July 22-23, 2023 – The weather was hot and sunny, with temperatures reaching 31°C for the Sherwood Park Highland Gathering at Broadmoor Lake Park where North Stratton of Edmonton won both Grade 2 band events against Calgary’s Rocky Mountain. The Professional Solo Piper of the Day […]
At a ceremony at Dunvegan, Skye, Calum MacCrimmon of Monifieth, Scotland, was officially appointed the 11th Honourary Hereditary Piper to Chief Hugh MacLeod of MacLeod in the long line of MacCrimmon descendants of Donald Ruadh MacCrimmon who inherit the role. The ceremonial pipe banner was presented by Kevin Tolmie of […]
John Mulhearn of Glasgow was the overall winner of the senior solo piping at the picturesque Lochearnhead Highland Games, with an almost perfect day by winning the Piobaireachd and Strathspey & Reel and placing second in the 2/4 March.
The weather was breezy and cool with a couple of light showers at the Airth Highland Games, where 10 competed in the senior open piping. Fred Morrison of Bishopton, Scotland, won everything.
William Donaldson writes: “The Sutherlands were an extended kindred in the far northern mainland of Scotland, where they were involved in frequent collisions with their neighbours the MacKays, and the Sinclairs of Caithness. Their chief residence at Dunrobin later became the seat of the notorious Duke of Sutherland one of the chief movers in the Highland Clearances.”