The top solo competition for young professional pipers aged under 22 will be held at Lochnell Castle, Argyll, on October 19 from 10am.
The line-up of invited pipers, with their qualifying success in brackets, is as follows: Ruairidh Brown (MSR winner 2023), Cameron May (B Grade Champion 2024 Argyllshire Gathering), Brodie Watson-Massey (Inverness Silver Medal), Ross Conner (Lochaber Gathering Piob 3rd prize, plus multiple prizes at games), Luke Kennedy, (5th place AG Silver Medal, Inveraray B Grade S&R), Kyle Cameron (MacGregor Mem. Piob. 2024), Fraser Hamilton (3rd in MacGregor), Camron MacPhail (3rd RG Hardie Intermediate MSR.)
Invitation were extended to successful pipers from Canada and Australia but they were unable to travel due to school and university commitments.
Judges are Alasdair Henderson, Ronald MacShannon and Dr Jack Taylor. Fear an Tigh is John Wilson. Each piper has to submit four tunes of his own choice, tunes given in the final tuning room.
Pipers compete for the Jimmy McIntosh Memorial Trophy for Piobaireachd and the William McCallum Snr trophy for MSR. The Champion Piper receives the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society Bronze Star and £200. Prizes in each category are £120, £80, £60, £40.
Each competitor receives substantial expenses on top of any prizemoney. The competition was created to celebrate 150 years since the inauguration of the Argyllshire Gathering. This is its fourth year.
The competition is part sponsored by the Piobaireachd Society and the Argyllshire Gathering Trust. Torquil Telfer, piping convenor, said: ‘Once more we have a top class line-up of pipers all aged under 22.
‘The venue, Lochnell Castle, is perfect and comes courtesy of Lord Archie Cochrane. We have a distinguished judging panel. We have also continued our tradition of inviting a senior competitor to judge, in this case Alasdair Henderson the winner of the Senior Piobaireachd at the Argyllshire Gathering this summer.’
