One hundred years ago, on the seventh of August 1919, Donald Ramsay was born a farmer’s son near the West Lothian village of Torphichen, Bathgate. He began his piping under Alexander ‘Sandy’ Forrest, pipe major of the local band and a noted pupil of John MacDougall Gillies. By Robert Wallace Donald immediately showed great promise and soon won everything available to him in the amateur ranks venturing north to the…

The death has been reported in New Zealand of one of the great pipe band side drummers of the 20th century, Robert Turner. Robert was trained in the 214 Boys Brigade pipe band in Glasgow and after winning all the Juvenile titles with that band went on to take over as leading tip of the legendary Muirhead & Sons Pipe Band. There he won five World Championships in a row…

Congratulations to the amazing Steven McWhirter for his tenth World Solo Drumming title, clearly now the Alex Duthart or Jim Kilpatrick of today. Only one Scot in the top list, so well done too to Grant Cassidy of Uddingston Strathclyde for flying the flag. Grant is a protégé of the late Bert Barr, brilliant drummer, brilliant teacher and Alex’s loyal sidekick. A word for all the pipers who slaved throughout…

Thanks to Yahya Hussein in New York for this unique picture of a piper from WW2. Yahya: ‘Here’s a photo of the intrepid Pipe Major Rob Roy of Tobruk who survived the war and whom Jimmy McIntosh told me was a very good piper. His daughter wrote a book on him.’ The blurb: ‘This book is about Pipe Major Robert Roy MBE DCM of the Black Watch who became known…

The link for the piping at the National Mod is : https://youtu.be/TpLE7cv2tEg