Vickie Gray from Nova Scotia is a student of Margaret Dunn at the National Piping Centre (NPC). Last year, feeling ready to compete for the first time, the pottery maker who lives near the town of Lunenburg in the province’s south-west, joined the NPC’s Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers […]
Daily News
Jeannie’s comprehensive history of pipe bands is now on sale
Jeannie Campbell’s long-anticipated history of pipe bands has now been published. The book, Pipe Bands, which took the leading piping historian five years to compile, is now on sale, priced £30 (plus shipping). At 854 pages, the book is big. Included are chapters on the first civilian bands, juvenile bands, […]
The Sherriff is coming / Atholl Highlanders to mark members’ 50 years’ service / Books imminent
The Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario has announced that the George Sherriff Memorial Amateur Invitational Solo Piping Competition will be held in November. It will be held online. The contest did not take place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be the 25th year of […]
Famous pipe bands: Tullylagan
Tullylagan (Gaelic: Tulaigh Lagáin) is a small townland1 located near Cookstown in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. In 1923, two years after the formation of Northern Ireland, a group of men from the local Ulster Special Constabulary formed the band. The founding members donated a small amount of their wages to […]
Bellows pipers return for annual ‘blow out’
Enthusiasts of Scotland’s other piping tradition – the bellows-blown Lowland one – will gather in the Scottish Borders town of Galashiels on October 30. The 2021 annual conference (the ‘collogue’) of the Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society (LBPS) will go ahead in person and will feature three guest speakers: James […]
The history of the Argyllshire Gathering, part 24
1952 By Jeannie Campbell MBE In 1952 the newspapers reported that the Duchess of Argyll was indisposed at Inveraray Castle so the Duke was unable to attend the Gathering. There was an attendance of 600 at the ball on the first evening of the Gathering. Competitors entering the Open ceòl […]
Book review: ‘Hector of the Glens’
By Stuart Letford and Dan Nevans Please accept our collective apology for this review having taken so long to write. This was because one of us has only just been released from the Southern General Hospital having had his sides stitched and the other one refused to come out from […]
Scots village remembers historic regiment
The village of Dunkeld in Perthshire, Scotland is having a Re-Enactment Day on Saturday to celebrate the connection of the historic Scottish Horse regiment to the area. The Scottish Horse was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army’s Territorial Army raised by John Murray, the Marquess of Tullibardine (later the […]
CLASP profile: Martha Hall
Where are you from and how did you get into piping?My name is Martha Srisamai Hall and I am originally from Upland, California. While in middle school, I heard bagpipes for the first time at an Upland High School football game. The summer before my first year of high school […]
George goes global with his moisture trap
Veteran Scottish piper, George Steele (80) and his moisture control product have received a glowing write-up in an online newspaper in Virginia, USA. The South Uist native splits his time between homes in Glasgow and Fredericksburg and has done for many years. When he is not perfecting his moisture control […]