Category: Blog

Northern Meeting Day 1 Results- Clasp Finalists

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The first competitions were held today (Sept. 3) in Eden Court Theatre, Inverness. Results will be updated as they are made available. Finalists for tomorrow’s Clasp competition for holders of the Gold Medal are: Alan Bevan, Callum Beaumont, Connor Sinclair, Andrew Hayes, Ian K MacDonald, Alasdair Henderson, Jack Lee, Chris Armstrong, Angus MacColl, Iain Speirs, Stuart Liddell, Colin MacLellan. Judges for heats: R Barnes, M Cusack, R MacShannon and R…

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Piping Competition on Raasay

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Angus Clarke reports…. the 2026 Raasay Restitution Competition will be held this Saturday (September 05) in Raasay House Hotel, Isle of Raasay. The competition was specifically designed by Hamish Moore to encourage pipers to reconnect with Highland piping’s Gaelic roots and to think about the rhythms of step-dancing when playing dance tunes (jigs and strathspeys & reels).  There is also a pìobaireachd competition with a difference – players should be…

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Editor’s Notebook: Northern Meeting/ Bronze Medal/ Band News/ Horst Kraus

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To Inverness today for the 2026 Northern Meeting, the second of the two major solo piping gatherings to be held within the past week. This year is unique in that the Clasp competition has been split into two Thursday heats, six from each going forward to a final on Friday. Most of the top players would be in Inverness on the Thursday anyway for the Former Winners’ MSR but the…

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Canada’s Sean McKeown on Winning the Gold Medal

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Winning the Gold Medal is something that I’ve been striving for for some time. It’s every piper’s dream to win ‘the Medal’. To have the opportunity to play for it, first of all, has been a great honour. My first year in the Medal, placing behind my good friend Ian K MacDonald twice on his double win in 2016, was a really special moment for me and now, all these…

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P/M William Lyons BEM, 1940 – 2026

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William Lyons was taught to play the pipes, as a boy, at the Corbet Pipe Band, just outside Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. He joined the Irish Guards, in 1957.  During his service, he guest-played with one of Ireland’s top bands of the time, Dromara, under Pipe Major Harold Hook. His first piping instructor in the army was P/M KG Roe of the Scots Guards, and he always described…

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