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 […]
Tag: Duke of Atholl
Duke’s letter to pipers for the online Atholl Gathering / Drum Major required / Balmoral School
This year’s Atholl Gathering will be held online – as we predicted here a couple of weeks ago. Bruce Murray, the 12th Duke of Atholl, has personally prepared an invitation [pictured] to competiting pipers. He writes: “My family and the Atholl Highlanders have great pleasure in extending an invitation to […]
The playing at Blair – a look back at the 1988 Glenfiddich
The late 1980s was a period of transition in piping. In 1987 the 78th Fraser Highlanders became the first overseas pipe band to win the World Pipe Band Championships and in 1988 Ottawa-born Amy Garson would be the first female invited to compete at the Glenfiddich. The 1988 Glenfiddich was […]
2021 ‘majors’ / Atholl Highlanders CD / Michael Grey / Kyle Warren
The RSPBA has announced the dates for next year’s major pipe band championships. They are as follows: British Championships – May 22 at St James Playing Fields, Paisley, Scotland. United Kingdom Championships – June 12 at Lurgan Park, Lurgan, Northern Ireland. European Championships – June 26 at Bught Park, Inverness, […]
James Reid, a hero of the ’45
Today, we post this article from our archives. The article was written by Tommy Pearston and published in the December 1989 Piping Times. His subject was James Reid, the only piper who lost his life because he was a piper. Reid, a native of Angus in the east of Scotland, […]
From humble beginnings — the story of the Army School of Piping; part 1
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 […]
No hassle at the castle
By MacGregor Kennedy A round up of the 1984 Glenfiddich Piping Championships Everybody knows someone who could not organise a booze-up in a distillery, so most people who attend the Grant’s Scotch Whisky Piping Championships are perfectly well aware that the smooth-running machine which gives them so much pleasure at […]