Results

Willie McCallum won three of four of the light music events to secure the overall championship and a good share of the total prize fund of more than £3,500 that awarded eight cash prizes in each event at the annual Chatsworth County Fair, held in sunny weather on the grounds of the magnificent Chatsworth House. Ed McIlwaine won the Piobaireachd, and Neil Esslemont was first in the 6/8 March.

The second day of the 2024 Northern Meeting featured the Clasp for previous winners of one of the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medals that is for most, the greatest non-invitational solo piping competition there is. Nick Hudson of Houston won the Clasp for the first time, only a few years after gaining the Northern Meeting Highland Society of London Gold Medal in 2022 when he had to exit Eden Court Theatre quickly to return to Houston to enjoy the birth of his son. This time, he was able to savour the moment longer.

The first of the two-day 2024 Northern Meeting saw Craig Sutherland of Crieff, Scotland, win the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal for piobaireachd, adding to his win of the Gold Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering in 2017. He gains an invitation to the 2024 Glenfiddich Championships.

Liam Kernaghan won the third annual CPA Bronze Medal piobaireachd competition held at the National Piping Centre’s McPhater Street auditorium. Nineteen pipers competed in the event, which the Competing Pipers Association started to cater to members on the cusp of getting into the Silver Medal piobaireachd contests at the Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting. However, the events are limited to only 25, far more than those who apply to get into them.

The tenth Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Memorial Dinner-Recital Medal was awarded to Ian K. MacDonald of Whitby, Ontario, held before a full audience at the Caledonian Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the heart of Scotland’s capital city. MacDonald played “For My Lass, Fair, Pretty and Highland.”

The Lonach Highland Games date back to the 1820s, and this year’s event saw a preponderance of non-Scottish pipers competing and succeeding. James MacHattie, Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Washington, DC’s Andrew Donlon, and Ben McClamrock, also of Washington, won the Piobaireachd, March, and Strathspey & Reel, respectively.

Sandy Cameron of Roy Bridge, Scotland, and Auckland’s Liam Kernaghan won top prizes at the annual Lochaber Gathering, winning the Piobaireachd and MSR for pipers graded Premier or A by the Competing Pipers Association. Andrew Donlon of Washington, DC, was awarded the “Best Strathspey & Reel” prize as part of the MSR event.

Zephan Knichel of Surrey, British Columbia, won two of the three events at the annual Glenisla Highland Games, held in a farmer’s field just off the B951 near Kirriemuir. Knichel played against five others in the Senior solo piping. The field’s owner, the mysterious Major Gibb, is part of piping folklore, as he gets to judge the piping events along with more qualified people. We’re not kidding.

Following the more than 150-year tradition of the event, the Argyllshire Gathering took its second day of competition outdoors to Mossfield Park where the world’s best solo pipers weather whatever the weather wanted in various light music events.

The first day of the two-day Argyllshire Gathering saw Cameron Drummond of Edinburgh win the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal for piobaireachd, adding his name again to the history books. Drummond had been second in the event at Oban and Inverness several times.