The P/M Donald Macleod MBE Memorial Piping Competition, supported by Point and Sandwick Trust, is to be held behind closed doors this year, with the performances from the invited pipers to be broadcast online at a later date, due to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus. The Lewis and Harris Piping Society had initially postponed the competition, originally due to be held on April 3, to November 27, but the…

The late Roderick Cannon and I published an article in the pamphlet ‘West Highland Notes and Queries’, January 2013, concerning the ‘Maclean’ pipe banner [pictured above]. There was a translation by scholar Ronald Black of the Gaelic inscription in a subsequent issue of the publication. Before we get to that I have another short tale that may be of interest and could pose the query: ‘Did his pipes get wet?’…

Former RSPBA Adjudicator Alistair Aitken concludes his series on the difficulties facing the pipe band movement as we head towards a possible resumption of activity. The first major of 2021 is scheduled for May next year, only eight months from now…… To work effectively, for adjudication purposes, the half-circle formation would require all bands to form up in the same way. The adjudicators would need to stand, or be seated,…

The RSPBA Board of Directors today issued the following statement regarding the World Solo Drumming & International Juvenile Tenor Drumming Championships ‘As a result of the continued restrictions due to Covid19, including travel, both within the UK and overseas, limits on indoor gatherings, the compulsory use of face coverings, and the continuation of 2 metre social distancing measures indoors, have led to the decision to postpone the World Solo Drumming…

Braemar Gathering staged a sort of kid on games on Saturday, crowdless but with participants filmed in each discipline, the whole to be broadcast online later this month. Aberdeen piper John MacDonald did the needful at the piping bench with an MSR and a rendition of the Glen is Mine. I am not sure what the purpose was, probably just to keep everyone’s interest in the old gathering alive. Those…