By Elizabeth B. Somerville, Edinburgh This article originally appeared in the December 1984 Piping Times. I was seven years of age when I went for my first piping lesson from Pipe Major James Sutherland, late of the 2nd Batallion Seaforth Highlanders. I didn’t learn much in the first few weeks […]
William MacLean (1876–1957) was born in Tobermory, Isle of Mull to Raasay parents. He was a pupil of Calum Piobaire and won all the major prizes of the early 1900s. William became Pipe Major of The 5th Cameron (Lochiel) Highlanders during the First World War. He is an important link […]
With the 2020 invitational solo piping competition organised by The Glasgow Uist and Barra Association coming up on March 7 at The National Piping Centre Otago Street, we found the following critique from the 1978 competition interesting. Competing that day were many who have become some of our leading judges […]
This article, first published in the International Piper, discusses the various properties of a skin bag that the piper should be aware of. By Captain John A. MacLellan Climatic conditions often have a greater effect on the general condition of pipe bags than the material of which they are made. […]
By Hugh Cheape We in Scotland might sometimes be criticised for regarding our own piping tradition genre. Participation in the Festival Interceltique in Lorient in Brittany in August enabled three Scottish t bands to experience the vitality, skill, and enthusiasm of a different but related tradition of the bagpipe family […]
By Chris Earl, President of Pipe Bands Australia Pipe Bands Australia (PBA) this year celebrates its Diamond Jubilee – six decades since six state associations decided to form a federation that would in time transition to the national association we have today. The journey to that momentous meeting in 1960 […]
Last August, I arrived with my family on Ascension Island. Ascension is a small island, roughly the size of Benbecula, sitting alone in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. Its nearest neighbour, St Helena, is about 800 miles away to the south east while the coasts of Brazil and […]
What is going on inside our drones? This interesting article from 1958 touches on that subject as well as on distortion, tone, pitch and sound waves, subjects most pipers don’t understand as fully as they’d like to think. By Bill Jones and James McColl* Before delving into this article too […]
By Major D. M. Henderson, Women’s Royal Army Corps TA Continuing the article reprinted from British Army Review of 1988. We are grateful to Brigadier P. H. O’meara and to the author, Dr Diana Henderson, for permission to publish. After the First World War there was a serious shortage of […]
By Major D. M. Henderson, Women’s Royal Army Corps TA The following article is reprinted from British Army Review of 1988. We are grateful to Brigadier P. H. O’meara and to the author, Dr Diana Henderson, for permission to publish it here. Through an arched grey stone walkway of Edinburgh […]
