In a bid to increase entries, Piping Convenor Cameron MacFadyen has made significant changes to the playing requirements for the Colonel Jock MacDonald Clasp.
The main one is deeming tunes from the senior lists at Oban and Inverness as eligible submissions. The competition will be held on August 5 in Portree as part of the Skye Gathering. The closing date for entries for all senior piping events is 31st May. Mr MacFadyen’s changes in summary:
- A new Charles MacArthur Memorial Award and Targe for Clasp winners
- £150 ‘appearance money’ for all competitors in the Clasp
- Senior list tunes eligible
- Enhanced prize money
He states: ‘Thanks to the generosity of renowned patrons of piping, the Clan Donald Trust for the Gaelic Performing Arts, the Skye Highland Games Piping Committee is extremely pleased to announce the addition of a new prize, the Charles MacArthur Memorial Award which will be run in conjunction with, and in addition to, the Colonel Jock MacDonald Clasp.
‘In other words the prize winners in the Clasp competition will also be awarded the Charles MacArthur Memorial Award. Each competitor in the Clasp event will also receive £150.
‘Due to the strict time constraints, a maximum of seven competitors (including this year’s winner of the Dunvegan Medal, can be accommodated in the Clasp. If the event is oversubscribed entry will be by ballot.
‘Both winners of the Dunvegan Medal and the Clasp are invited to play in the following year’s Silver Chanter.
‘The choice of tunes to be submitted for the Clasp will continue to be 4 from the prescribed list of MacCrimmon compositions but in addition for 2025 tunes may also be selected from the Piobaireachd Society list for Senior Competitions https://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/set-tunes-archives
‘In other words, for the Clasp only, competitors can choose four from either list or a combination therefrom. The Dunvegan Medal requirements are unchanged and four tunes from the ‘MacCrimmon’ list should be submitted.
‘Charles MacArthur (c.1688 – c.1768) was one of the illustrious MacArthur family who, for generations, were hereditary pipers to the MacDonalds of the Isles and also contemporaries of the MacCrimmons.
‘Indeed it is said that Charles studied under Padruig Og MacCrimmon for some 11 years. Legend has it that such was the standing in which Charles MacArthur was held that Malcolm MacCrimmon sent his son, Donald Ruadh, to Charles to complete his (Donald’s) piping education.
‘An interesting footnote is that there exists to this day a partially completed inscription on a headstone lying in Kilmuir old churchyard on Skye eulogising Charles MacArthur.
‘It is said that the headstone was commissioned by Charles’ son, Donald, but when Donald was accidentally drowned while crossing from Uist to Skye with a boat load of cattle, the craftsman doing the inscription, possibly thinking that he would now never be paid for his work, abruptly stopped.
‘Another theory is that the craftsman was so crestfallen with his mistake (a repeated word) in the inscription that he simply gave up and left.
‘In any event, we’ll never know what the full inscription may have said. Now some 250 years old, the stone would be the better of some protection from the elements if the inscription is to survive much longer.’
