Highlands & Islands Festival 2023 Piping Full Results

Another successful competition was held in the Oban High School today, Saturday, April 29, with healthy entries in most competitions. Sponsors included the Piobaireachd Society and the Competing Pipers’ Association. P/A Ceol Mor for Cooper Salver (1st) and Dugald MacColl Memorial Trophy (2nd).1 Roderick MacLeod, Old Men of the Shells2 Steven Leask, MacNeil of Barra’s March 3 Darach Urquhart, I Got a Kiss of the King’s Hand4 William Geddes, Lament…

Editor’s Notebook: New BBC Piping Show/ Charles Dunbar/ Captain John Dinner/ Electronic Pipes for Sale/ Moray Boost

I must say I was impressed with the crisp, no-nonsense delivery of the BBC’s new piping presenter Micheal Steele – maybe not so much with the show. Micheal, from his Gaelic pronunciation, is clearly a speaker of the old tongue and that bilingualism will work well when he re-works things for the Gaelic medium ‘Crunluath’ programme. The new show, entitled ‘Piping Sounds’, is more or less what the critics predicted…

Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting Pipers and Judges

The two leading solo piping competitions in the world, the Argyllshire Gathering, Oban, and the Northern Meeting, Inverness, will be held on August 23/24, and August 31/ Sept 1 respectively. Places for competitors are limited to under 30 and are allocated on a track record basis by a joint committee of promoters, competing pipers’ representatives and judges’ representatives. Competitors for the senior events are not listed. The Senior Piobaireachd and…

Creagorry Blend, Lachie Ban MacCormick and P/M William MacLean

Christoph Warth from Germany regarding the reel, Creagorry Blend: ‘Dear Mr. Wallace, I hope you are doing well. You may remember me from the first years of the Brüggen classes in Germany. I was the one with the saffron kilt. ‘I frequently play my pipes for myself and together with a friend but stopped playing in a band or competing in lack of time. By the Editor ‘I´m looking for…

Clan MacRae History – Readers Respond

Matthew M Farrigan: Long time since we have chatted. If you remember, I don’t like to stick my big American nose where it doesn’t belong. However, on this occasion, I felt I might have some info (not 100% sure) to ID another chap in the photo.  In the mid-90s I traveled from Schenectady, NY, to Worcester, Mass, to play with the Worcester Kiltie PB. The band had rounded up all the…