The music here is by the hand of the legendary John MacDougall Gillies and belonged to his pupil Robert Reid. Check out the full score below where you can just make out Reid’s signature bottom right ‘Property of Pipe Major Robert Reid’. All piobaireachd players will recognise the tune as MacFarlane’s Gathering or, as is given here, ‘Togail nam Bo’ (Taking of the Cattle’), rustling to Western fans. I read…

Congratulations to Inveraray Pipe Band for being chosen as ‘Pipe Band of the Year’ and to Iain Ruari Finlayson as ‘Music Tutor of the Year’ at Saturday’s Scottish Traditional Music Awards. It was the third time that Inveraray, the current World Champions, had won this award sponsored by the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust. Their prize was picked up by band members Ross Miller and Callum Brown. Iain Ruairi is the…

It has been a long haul but the UK’s bagpipe manufacturers have finally been released from the red tape that added greatly to their costs and paperwork. From December 14, 2019, they will no longer have to comply with strict export and import licence requirements which cover African blackwood. From that date they will only have too prove that their raw material comes from a licensed supplier (who in turn…

I spent a pleasant afternoon at the Shotts Junior contest last Saturday listening to the performances in the 18 and under ceol mor, writes the Editor. There was an outstanding Daughter’s Lament from Luke Kennedy, the winner. One is reluctant to praise too highly youngsters for fear that it goes to their head, but all things being equal this young chap will go far, make no mistake. He tackled this…

Is the Dora MacLeod strathspey now prescribed by the RSPBA’s Music Board for Grade 4 and Novice bands the same tune I remember struggling with in my youth? Is it the same finger twister Peter MacLeod Jnr. wrote for his sister? Surely not. Grade 1 bands and professional pipers shy away from this tune for goodness sake, so how the authorities are going to elicit excellence from the minor grades…