As PP readers might know, due to a few missed years (venue changes, covid) this is the 50th year of the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada), writes Robert Wilson.
The competition will be held on Friday, July 31st, 2026 at 8am in St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, 34 Main St S., Maxville. Ontario. We have 11 entries in the Gold Medal contest.
We’ve lined up ‘children’ of the original contest founders to commemorate the 50th milestone: Colin MacLellan and John Cairns.
Both are sons of the original founders Captain John MacLellan and Major Archie Cairns. Both Colin and John are on the bench along with Dr Angus MacDonald. All three are former winners of the Gold Medal.
Jack Coghill Jr (piper, and son of the other founder, P/M Jack Coghill) will be the Master of Ceremonies and Jenny Putinski (another piper, and daughter of Fred Sharpe, the original medal designer), will be assisting with stewarding.
Ed Bush will replace Colin on the bench for the Bar, the former winners’ event. Ed is a former winner of both the Gold Medal and Bar. The Bar contest should be quite strong.
The competitors are: Alex Gandy, Bruce Gandy, Jacob Dicker, Mike Rogers, James MacHattie, Sean McKeown, Ian K MacDonald and Jack Lee.
In 1973, at the City of Ottawa Highland Games, the ‘Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada)’ came into being and the first winner was P/M Ed Neigh, Guelph, Ontario.
This contest became a separate event in 1975 and has continued to date with the venue changing from Ottawa (1973 – 1984), to Cambridge, Ontario (1985 – 1994), and to Maxville, Ontario, where it has since been hosted and sponsored by Glengarry Highland Games.
For the Gold Medal, each player must submit a specified number of tunes from the lists compiled by the Piobaireachd Society. The Gold Medal and Bar competitions draw the best pipers from Canada, the United States and abroad and it has become one of the premier solo-piping contests in North America to have the Piobaireachd Society’s endorsement.
The original Gold Medal was designed by Maj. Cairns and produced by Fred Sharpe. The Gold Medal had a figure of a piper on the face with ‘Outstanding Performance of Ceol Mor’ in script and ‘The Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal’ in raised capitals around the top.
On the reverse was the City of Ottawa Coat of Arms, with the Medal being supported by a ribbon of the City of Ottawa colours. Today, the Gold Medal has the Glengarry Highland Games Logo on the reverse side.
March Lessons… A large range of tunes…. click on pic
Lessons on marches… click on pic to select your tune
