Two interesting prizes awarded to two brothers at Victorian-era Northern Meetings have been donated to the trustees of the Inverness-based piping competition. The prizes are snuff mills, one presented to Duncan Ross for the “third best performance on the Great Highland Bagpipes” at the 1862 Northern Meeting, and the other […]
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The history of the Argyllshire Gathering, part 28
1958-1959 By Jeannie Campbell MBE The ten tunes set for the Open competition in 1958 were The Battle of the Pass of Crieff, Lament for Donald Bàn MacCrimmon, Donald Gruamach’s March, The Earl of Antrim’s Lament, Lady Margaret MacDonald’s Salute, Scarce of Fishing, Colin Roy MacKenzie’s Lament, The Park Piobaireachd, […]
Historic former MacDonald clan seat restored
Monkstadt House in north Skye, once the seat of the island’s powerful Clan Donald, has been fully restored to its former glory. Skye builder, James MacQueen purchased the historic 18th century building and spent three years working on it. Monkstadt House became the seat of the Clan Donald in 1732 […]
Tickets for Bratach Gorm now available
The Scottish Piping Society of London has announce details for next month’s London Competition held in The Caledonian Club near Hyde Park Corner in Belgravia. The competition takes place on November 5-6 and will mark the 81st annual competition. Tickets for Saturday’s competitions – including Premier, A and B grade, […]
Scotland to feature in virtual heritage trail
The world’s first ever UNESCO trail, bringing together some of Scotland’s most iconic, diverse and culturally significant sites, was launched yesterday 13 Scottish place-based designations are included in the digital trail that covers World Heritage Sites, biosphere reserves and “creative cities”. The dedicated digital trail aims to take visitors on […]
Paddy Moloney, 1938-2021 / Gordons memorial unveiled / Instructors’ workshop
The world of traditional music has paid tribute to Chieftains piper, Paddy Moloney, who died on Monday at the age of 83. The acclaimed multi-instrumentalist was a leading contributor to the revival of Irish folk and traditional music. The band he founded, The Chieftains became one of the best-known Irish […]
Ian Duncan’s 50 years’ Atholl Highlander service recognised
Legendary Scottish piper, Ian Duncan’s 50 years’ service with the Atholl Highlanders, was recognised at Blair Castle last weekend. Also recognised was Drum Major Alister Walker, another well-known face in Perthshire. Alister is also one of three Drum Majors in local band, the Vale of Atholl. Ian and Alister were […]
All Mòd cons / Stuart Liddell collection
This year’s Royal National Mòd kicked off this weekend, showcasing some of the riches of modern Gaelic culture. The weekend began on Saturday with shinty matches – with the women’s and men’s Mòd Cups, won for the ladies and the gents by Inverness City. Meanwhile, a tightly contested match between […]
Stuart Marshall retains the 2021 Nicol-Brown
Stuart Marshall, pictured, from Stokesdale, North Carolina was the overall winner at this year’s Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Piping Competition. Marshall was also the overall winner in 2020. His win at this year’s Nicol-Brown follows his win in the 2021 CLASP World Solo Amateur Piping Competition, held during Piping Live!. This […]
Yoshi Wada (1943-2021): an appreciation
By Julian Goodacre About ten years ago my son, Liam gave me a CD re-release of an LP from 1981 called Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile by Yoshi Wada. I played it a couple of times, without giving too much attention to it, and then […]