Ayrshire’s Land Energy provides financial support to help sustain Grade 4A Strathendrick

“Keeping a pipe band running week to week is an expensive business, and we rely on fundraising and donations to pay for instruments, uniforms and travel.”

Those are the never-truer words from Grade 4A Strathendrick bass drummer Paul May after Ayrshire-based wood pellet and briquette producer Land Energy contributed £1,000 to help fund the band’s teaching and competition activities in 2026.

While £1,000 isn’t enough for any active pipe band to cover the prodigious and ever-increasing costs of instruments, reeds, uniforms, association and contest fees and travel over a year, the amount will make things a lot easier for the 80-year-old Strathendrick, based in Blanefield, near Glasgow, with a focus since day one “to bring in young people, enable them to learn new skills and become members of the band, and introduce them to traditional Scottish music.”

“This donation from Land Energy will help massively towards travel costs this year, and our intention is to take all our youth members to the last competition of the season in Rothesay, where they will have the chance to experience the closing parade marching down the High Street with the full band, hopefully while holding a trophy,” May added.

“As a company, we have sponsored various initiatives over the years and are exceptionally proud to support the Strathendrick Pipe Band Association with this donation,” a spokesperson from Land Energy said. “We believe it is important to give the next generation a wide breadth of experiences that will hopefully develop into a lifelong passion for them, while also raising their cultural capital.”

Strathendrick placed tenth in the Grade 4A Final at the 2025 World Championships and finished just outside of the prize lists at the other three majors last year.

Land Energy is the UK’s largest producer of sustainable, low-carbon renewable fuel for homes and businesses.

The company is now one of the few non-piping/drumming businesses that proactively publicize their financial support of a pipe band.