Category: History

Piper in the Cave of Melody With His Own Hebridean Overture on the Magical Isle of Staffa

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The Island of Staffa lies to the west of Mull. It was once part of the Clan Macquarrie lands along with Ulva and a few other surrounding Islands. In 1772 a single family lived on Staffa trying to farm sheep, but due to winter storms and hard living they were not there for very long. The only structure to be seen today is the remains of a 19th century shelter…

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From the Archives: Dame Flora’s 90th Celebrated at an ‘Exhibition of Piping’ in London

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This is taken from February 29, 1968, edition of the ‘Edinburgh Weekly’ newspaper. The original article was headlined ‘The Skirl o’ the Pipes in the Swinging City’…… Dame Flora MacLeod (90) stepped off a plane from New York at London Airport. She made straight for ‘an exhibition of piping’ at the London Scottish regiment Headquarters, Buckingham Gate. A packed audience of 400 gave the Clan Chief a tremendous ovation. In…

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Modern History of the Pipe Band Movement from 1946 to the Millennium

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The Second World War interrupted pipe band contests, which resumed in 1946. In 1947 the Scottish Pipe Band Association decided to take the World Championship away from Cowal as they had had a good offer from Edinburgh City Council which wanted it to be held there to coincide with the new Festival. Cowal refused to give up the Championship or hand over the trophies, and after a lot of meetings…

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Modern History of Pipe Bands from 1946 to the Millennium – 2

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A new points system was introduced in 1961 and in 1962 the idea of a possible fourth grade to replace the Ladies’ and Juvenile grades was broached. Grade Four contests began in 1963. The bands in this new grade were to play either a two-part march twice over or a four part march once and have a minimum of six pipers, two sides and a bass drum. Other grades continued…

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A Reset of Silver Medal Qualification is Required Post Pandemic

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The last major piping events at the Argyllshire Gathering (AG), Oban, and the Northern Meeting (NM), Inverness, were in 2019 and the next such events will be, hopefully, in 2022. We will all be three years older by the time we sit down to listen once more to these great competitions.Looking at past programmes of the Northern Meeting it is surprising how the names of the players change in a…

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