Angus MacColl, Gordon Bruce, Finlay Johnston and Callum MacInnes. Photo: Kevin McGlynn.

Finlay Johnston and Gordon Bruce arrived in a hot and sunny Oban at the weekend to complete their marathon 104 mile charity cycle from Glasgow.

To date, the duo have raised £4,518 raised for Cancer Research.

On hand to greet them as they arrived at the finish line near the Corran Halls were local piping figures Angus MacColl, Callum MacInnes, Alistair and Glynis Dewar, Torquil Telfer and Euan Dewar.

Kyle Warren (at Helensburgh) and Stuart Liddell (at Inveraray) provided musical encouragement along the way.

Puggled. Angus MacColl pipes Gordon and Finlay into the car park at the Corran Halls.

Finlay’s father, Tommy, died last July from cancer.


Can readers help us with an enquiry we received about the Abbeyhill and District Pipe Band?

George Spratt sent us this photograph, below, of the band. It was taken at Holyrood in Edinburgh in 1924. George tells us he’d like to know more about this band as his wife may have had relatives in it.

We know the Abbeyhill band was well known around this period in that part of Edinburgh that lies within Holyrood, London Road, the yards of Waverley Station, and Meadowbank. Elizabeth (Bessie) Watson, who was dubbed Scotland’s youngest suffragette, played with the band for a time.

Please contact us in the usual way.


The Scottish Government has launched a fund to help bands tour.

Musicians and bands – and venues – can apply to the £750,000 fund that aims to bring new and additional concerts to venues and festivals around the country next year.

The fund, Scotland on Tour, will support the staging of concerts from between January 2022 and January 2023.

The fund is organised by Active Events and funded by the Scottish Government.

Further details will be announced soon as to how artists and venues can apply to the fund, which is expected to open for applications in October.

Registrations of interest to the fund can be recorded by sending an email to info@scotlandontour.com