Lonach Highland Gathering 2025

The solo piping competitions begin at 10.30 am (Piobaireachd) and run throughout the day.​

We are very excited for this year’s competition and to discover who will be the winner of the Charles Morrison Medal.

The cash prizes for the top-three finishers in the Piobaireachd competition are : 1st: £500, 2nd: £300, and 3rd £200, and the contest will be open to any piper older than 18, with no grading requirement from the Competing Pipers Association.

Competitors are required to prepare 3 tunes for the competition.

ONLINE ENTRIES ARE NOT YET OPEN FOR LONACH 2025.

Entries are still to be accepted on the day at the Secretary’s office.

Lonach Games announced in 2023, and for the next 50 years, a generous donor has given £1000 towards the piobaireachd competitions. 

The winner will receive £500 and the Charles Morrison medal. Second place will receive £300, and third place £200.

The donation has been made by Ivan Reid in memory of his uncle Charles Morrison, a man of music, born 1899, served in WW1, emigrated to Canada before returning to his native land to work in the family grocers business.  He piped with the Lonach Pipe Band, still a strong force today, and he also played the fiddle, the cornet and the saw.

In a programme note Ivan Reid writes: “In the days before television brought the curtain down on DIY entertainment, Uncle Charlie and his fiddling friends would often gather to make music, an impromptu concert in the store of the shop. His expertise in prising music from a crosscut saw, held upright between the knees, the blade twisted to various degrees and played with a bow was demonstrated on stage as a member of our local concert party, The Strathdon Sparklers.”

It was Ivan Reid’s respect for his Uncle’s love of the music and the associated camaradarie which led to the gift being made.

Ivan added: “In years to come my wish is for pipers to mark on their calendar the fourth Saturday in August when in increasing numbers they journey to the arena in Bellabeg to compete in friendly rivalry.

“My Uncle Charlie would have smiled saying, ‘I like the sound of that’.”