The 12th annual Captain John A MacLellan MBE Memorial Piping Championship was held at the Army School at Inchdrewer House, Edinburgh, today (Oct.4).
P Piobaireachd, 8 entries, 6 played: 1 Callum Beaumont, £300 – Craigellachie 2 William McCallum, £240 – Edinburgh Piobaireachd 3 Finlay Johnston, £200 – MacLeod of MacLeod’s Lament
P MSR, 8 entries, 7 played: 1 Sarah Muir, £190 2 Finlay Johnston, £160 3 William McCallum, £130 4 Callum Beaumont, £110: P Grade Champion: Callum Beaumont
A Piobaireachd, 16 entries: 1 Sandy Cameron, £250, MacLeod of Colbeck’s Lament 2 Gordon Bruce, MacNeill of Barra, £200 3 Eireann Ianetta-MacKay, You’re Welcome Ewan, £180 4 Cameron May, Unjust Incarceration, £140 5 Calum Wynd, Piper’s Warning, £100
A MSR, 18 entries: 1 Sandy Cameron, £150 2 Steven Leask, £120 3 Calum Wynd, £90 4 Brodie Watson-Massey, £60 5 Calum Watson, £50; A Grade Champion: Sandy Cameron
B Piobaireachd, 24 entries: 1 Ross Conner, £140, Old Men of the Shells 2 Bradley Parker, £100, Melbank’s Salute 3 Jonathon Simpson, Lament for the Children £80 4 James Frazer, £60 5 Alex Gehrig, £40
B MSR, 21 entries: 1 Keith Bowes, £60 2 Ruairidh Brown, £50 3 Ross Conner, £40 4 James Frazer, £30 5 Jonathon Simpson, £20; B Grade Champion: Ross Conner
C Piobaireachd, 25 entries: 1 Peter MacKay, £80 2 Arran Green, £60 3 John Cameron, £50 4 Liam Nicolson, £40 5 Thomas Congelosi, £30
C MSR, 33 entries: 1 David Bruce, £50 2 Thomas Fallon, £40 3 Catriona Norman, £30 4 Arran Green, £20 5 Peter MacKay, £10; C Grade Champion winning a set of McCallum bagpipes: Peter MacKay
Open H&J, 63 entries: 1 Sarah Muir, £150 2 Brodie Watson-Massey, £130 3 William McCallum, £110 4 Gordon Bruce, £90 5 Calum Watson, £70
Judges: E Anderson, J Banks, L Barclay, R Barnes, B Donaldson, A Forbes, D Fraser, M Henderson, P Hunt, R Livingstone, DJ MacIntyre, D MacPhee, R MacShannon, W Morrison, J Wilson.
Editor Robert Wallace reports: I spent a pleasant afternoon in the company of Archie Kenneth Quaich winners Gill Cairns and John Frater listening to much of the A Piobaireachd. Gill is now happily settled back in the UK. John is never happier than when rummaging around in the manuscripts at the National Library and it was an education hearing of his latest findings.
I missed the winner Sandy Cameron who was on in the morning. Of those I heard there was a mixed bag of playing, but all tunes had some merit. We had big pieces such as Ronald MacDonald of Morar and the Unjust Incarceration interspersed with tunes from the 2025 Silver Medal list, You’re Welcome Ewan and the Piper’s Warning, and other favourites. The bagpipes were mostly very good with the outstanding instrument produced by Cameron May.
Of those not in the list there was a sprightly King’s Hand from Darach Urquhart (perhaps just a little pushy in the dithis singling). Jamie Elder tried hard with Ronald MacDonald but the dullish pipe wasn’t quite up to the task and there was some tight fingerwork. Young Kyle Cameron had a sparkling instrument and gave a solid reading of Chisholm’s Salute, maybe just lacking in subtlety for this level of competition.
James MacHattie, Calum Brown, Calum Watson, and Andrew Donlon are all first class pipers who just were not at their best at Inchdrewer. More generally (and I mean among the prizewinners too) there was a lack of rhythmical technique. There were too many nippy hiharins, clumsy chedaris, tight fosgailtes, open dares. These movements are all crucial to the smooth delivery of ceòl mòr. Neglect the practice chanter at your peril. (Obliged if someone could pass on the missing tunes in the B and C Grade Piob.)
This was yet another very well run contest overseen by the Director of Army Piping, Major Ross McCrindle, and his assistant WO1 P/M Grant. The major thanked his main sponsors, McCallum Bagpipes and the Edinburgh Tattoo Arts Programme who provided the prizemoney. He then announced October 3, 2026, as the date of the 12th John MacLellan Memorial.
You will see no pictures of any of the P grade trophy winners above. They’d all gone home by the time of the prizegiving. Hard to blame them given that their day ended at lunchtime and the prizes were at 5.15pm. Not for the first time there was only a handful of entrants in this grade. I respectfully suggest the P and A are amalgamated henceforth. Add a few more prizes in the joint grade and bump up the prize fund.
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It is a shame that the Premier pipers did not join the audiences after their performances and wait for the awards to be presented and have snaps taken with the other pipers. If they had been serving soldiers under the late John MacLellan they would have at some stage found themselves in the Cabar Feidh Hotel (jail).