In a new venture, the Piobaireachd Society are running a Summer School of Ceol Mor in late May 2020. Tuition at the school is free to all members of the Society. The tutors are myself and former President Dr Jack Taylor. The venue is the spacious and well appointed Gartmore House just south of Aberfoyle, about 45 minutes from Glasgow. As I say, the tuition is free. Participants only have…

We conclude the very interesting article ‘Pipers of Scotland’ from the pen of the London Times piping correspondent Seton Gordon. It dates from the 1960s. In this excerpt he discusses the hereditary pipers to the MacDougalls and MacKenzies, gives composers for two famous piobaireachd and poses the age old question: do pipers today play as the masters of the past did? The MacDougalls were originally hereditary pipers to the MacDougall…

We continue with the article by noted writer Seton Gordon first published in the London Times in the 1960s…. Another family of pipers celebrated at one time in Perthshire were the MacIntyres, for a period pipers to the chiefs of the Clan Menzies. They were not, like the MacGregors, natives of the county but came traditionally from the Isles. The first of whom we have read is Donald Mor. He…

Alan Cardwell has kindly forwarded the above picture of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Pipe Band in 1977 featuring his father, the late Denver. The band is pictured with its first Chairman, Chief Constable Sir John Hermon. Alan tells me the band’s first practice of that year took place on February 9th. If anyone has any more on the founding of the band, now known as the Police Service of Northern…

Very sorry to hear of the passing of Dr Bruce Thomson, writes the Editor. Bruce was a noted composer, his most famous tune being the 2/4 march Tommy MacDonald of Barguilean. I remember sitting next to Bruce at the Shotts Worlds Week concert several years ago when P/M Robert Mathieson asked him to stand take a bow before the band launched into the tune. Hundreds in the audience turned to…