Interesting People

CLASP profile: Gill Cairns

CLASP profile: Gill Cairns

The next member of the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) to be profiled is Gill Cairns, who is currently domiciled in Malta. • Where are you from and how did you get into piping?I’m originally from Inverness, Scotland. I’ve lived around the world, most recently in Singapore, Madrid […]

CLASP profile: Rebecca Paterson

CLASP profile: Rebecca Paterson

The latest member of the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) to be profiled is young Rebecca Paterson from Scotland. • Where are you from and how did you get into piping?I am from Strachur, a village in Argyll, Scotland. I was taught firstly by my Dad as he […]

CLASP profile: Michael Trenor

CLASP profile: Michael Trenor

• Where are you from and how did you get into piping?I’m from Columbus, Ohio, USA. I was five years old in a park when I first heard a piper. I sat and listened to him for what seamed like forever. When my mother found me I told her I […]

Famous pipers: Aeneas Rose

Famous pipers: Aeneas Rose

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 […]

CLASP profile: Joe Hardy

CLASP profile: Joe Hardy

Where are you from and how did you get into piping? I was born in western North Carolina but I now live in South Carolina. As a young boy, my dad took my sisters and me to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in Linville, NC. This was in 1957 or 1958, […]

Francie Markis: lone piper

Francie Markis: lone piper

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 […]

CLASP profile: Anthony Kelly

CLASP profile: Anthony Kelly

Anthony Kelly from Ireland is the latest member of the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) to be profiled: • Where are you from and how did you get into piping?I’m, originally from Dublin but now living in Roscommon ireland with my wife, Nicola, son Gavin and two daughters, […]

CLASP profile: Hector Thomson

CLASP profile: Hector Thomson

Hector Thomson is the latest member of the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) to be profiled. • Where are you from and how did you get into piping?I was born in Selkirk on the night of the Common Riding* so I was born with pipe bands ringing in […]

CLASP profile: James Carnegie

CLASP profile: James Carnegie

James Carnegie is the latest member of the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) to be profiled: • Where are you from and how did you get into piping?Edinburgh (although I now live in Cambridge). My uncle plays and from an early age I wanted to learn the pipes. […]