Results

The Competition League for Adult Solo Pipers (CLAS …

Neil Walker of Perth, Western Australia, won the James A. Center Trophy as the best overall in the A Grade solo piping at the 2026 Victorian Pipers Association Victorian Championships at PLC Melbourne. Walker won all three light music events and was second in the Piobaireachd, which Jono Quay, Melbourne, won.

Greighlan Cross won both events in Grade 3, the highest grade of contested band events, while Alastair Lee gained the Andrew Bonar Trophy at the Friday night Donald MacRae Pub Piping Hornpipe & Jig, Callum Bevan won the Open solo piping aggregate trophy, and Megan Millar was victorious in the Open solo snare drumming at the 79th Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games & Gathering at Enumclaw Expo Centre in warm, sunny, dry weather.

Inveraray & District were crowned 2026 Scottish Pipe Band Champions at Levengrove Park, within sight of Scotland’s iconic Dumbarton Rock, against a field of eight other Grade 1 bands competing for the fourth of the five major championships on the RSPBA’s rota of major competitions. St. Laurence O’Toole won the Grade 1 drumming title.

It was a Kiwi kind of day at the annual Airth Highland Games, with New Zealanders Callum Carn and Campbell Wilson winning the firsts, and Carn the aggregate trophy. It was Carn’s third successive Piobaireachd win, after hauling in the trophies at Helensburgh and Taynuilt games in the last few weeks.

In addition to the Inveraray Highland Games’ traditional solo piping events, the popular gathering saw its second successive Solo Drumming Competition. Daniel Farrell won the contest for snare drummers ages 15 to 18, and Nathan Paul won the presentation shield for the Best Local Drummer award.

arry Evans of St. Andrews, Scotland, was the aggregate winner across the Grade 1 events run by the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) at the 2026 Inveraray Highland Games. Andrew Robertson won the overall award in Grade 2, and Philip Duthie won the aggregate in Grade 3.

The 2026 Minnesota Scottish Fair & Highland Games were held on the idyllic urban campus of Macalester College, and the Macalester College Pipe Band won the President’s Jug, presented by Sue Rivera, Macalester’s 17th and current president, who was a great promoter of the school’s Scottish tradition and instrumental in bringing the games back to the Macalester campus in 2023.

Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, won both light music events and was fourth in the Piobaireachd to win the aggregate Alasdair Crystal Memorial Trophy in the Premier and A Grade events at the annual Inveraray Highland Games. Piobaireachd winner Callum Beaumont of Guardbridge, Scotland, was runner-up.

Gordon McCready, 2025 Helensburgh, Scotland – July …

Callum Carn won the Piobaireachd and David Bruce won both light music events at Taynuilt Games on a warm and sunny day, with 18 competing in the Senior solo piping.

Thomas Cangelosi’s two firsts and one second prize tipped Ryan Praskovich’s one first and two second prizes at the Friday Open Solo Piping Competition at the annual Ligonier Highland Games.

The 30th-anniversary Skagit Valley Highland Games & Celtic Festival featured a total prize pool of close to US$35,000 for pipe bands, solo pipers, and drummers, and Alastair Lee was the overall Open solo piping winner, Cameron Bonar won both the Gordon Duncan Memorial Kitchen Piping and the Skye Richendrfer Memorial Jig event, named for the late Celtic music mover-and-shaker and co-founder of the games. Malcolm Fuller was the overall winner of the Open solo snare drumming.

Dartmouth & District won both Grade 2 band events, James MacHattie won the Piobaireachd, and Alex Gandy won the other three Open solo piping contests at the 161st Antigonish Highland Games, held in excellent weather. The event is one of the world’s longest-running piping and drumming competitions.

The Penticton Scottish Festival in British Columbia’s scenic Okanagan Valley saw Cameron Bonar of Surrey, British Columbia, win the aggregate in the Open Solo Piping, while Malcolm Fuller gained the equivalent award in the Open Solo Snare Drumming. Band entries were sparse, with Robert Malcolm Memorial 4 winning both Grade 4 events against Kamloops.