By Jeannie Campbell MBE The Argyllshire Gathering of 1873 was not the first games to be held in Oban that year. The Lorn Ossianic Society had been formed in the previous year, its object being “the furtherance of Celtic Sports” and it held its first highland games on September 3, […]
By Jeannie Campbell MBE Pipers at the Argyllshire Gathering, if they think about its origins at all, probably believe it began as an ordinary Highland Games or as a piping competition to award the Gold Medal and the other important prizes. If they notice the presence of the Duke of […]
Regular readers will recall our post on Jeannie Campbell’s discovery of a rare photograph showing Willie Lawrie receiving his Gold Medal at the 1910 Northern Meeting. The post also included two other rare photographs from that year’s competition, one of which [pictured] shows four judges who were seated, hidden from […]
By Burgess Hay Today is the 275th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden. As I stand here beside, but not on, the windy moor, I find it impossible not to reflect on the winds of change that swept through highland society and through piping, in particular, in the months and […]
By Roderick D. Cannon When attempting to compare Gesto’s canntaireachd staff notation we have some helpful resources which we can call upon. There are some other written records of canntaireachd, especially one compiled by Angus MacKay consisting of short quotations of tunes. They are quite possibly from Angus’s father, but […]
The music of John MacCrimmon – the ‘Gesto Canntaireachd’ — Part 2 By Roderick D. Cannon We don’t know exactly when Niel MacLeod of Gesto started collecting his music or how long he spent on it. We do know, however, that the collection had taken shape by 1815, because in […]
The music of John MacCrimmon – the ‘Gesto Canntaireachd The 2015 College of Piping Lecture took place at the Birnam Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland in March of that year. Professor Roderick – Roddy – Cannon, who had been preparing his latest book for publication – The music of John MacCrimmon […]
In our report last week of the passing of Jock Duncan we made mention of 19th century Aberdeenshire piper, Francie Markis. In an article published in March 1990 in Common Stock, the journal of the Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society (LBPS), Jock unearthed information on Markis. Although the article shed […]
Many of us have been following the COVID-19 updates from the UK, Ireland and around the world over the past year and more, and are hugely thankful that in Scotland and the UK at least, the vaccine roll out is beginning to give us hope for a return to social […]
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? or The highland pipe and mid-20th century American collegiate basketball Please follow this link to Spotify to enjoy the playlist I have put together for you to enjoy while reading this article. (You will obviously need to have a Spotify […]
