Spirits high as Rachel Gray, Gary West and Angus D. MacColl win dream and dram prizes at 2026 Raasay Restitituion

Raasay, Scotland – August 6, 2026 – The singular Raasay Restitution solo piping competition once again put the accent on Hebridean culture and fun, this year moving from the Raasay Community Hall to the Raasay House Hotel, and it was Rachel Gray who won the “Pìobaireachd Song” event and Gary West who took the Dance Music contest, each coming away with terrific prizes.

Gray received a set of Hamish Moore pipes in A, made of mopani wood, a dense, highly durable two-tone African hardwood sourced from the roots of the Colophospermum mopane tree. The pipes are an exact copy of the “Black Set of Kintail” from 1785 on display in the Inverness Museum.

West was awarded a cask of The Raasay single malt whisky, valued at more than £3000 and yielding more than 100 litres of the celebrated stuff.

Angus D. MacColl of Benderloch, Scotland, was second in both events and got a bottle of The Raasay for each success.

The performances were on Highland pipes in a variety of pitches, from concert B-flat to A to that typically heard around the games, adding to the entertainment value.

The Pìobaireachd Song event asked pipers to play only a ground, a “pìobaireachd song” (or equivalent) of a tune in the traditions of Gaelic song and its links with ceòl-mòr, and was judged by Gaelic singer James Graham and world-famous Highland piper Allan MacDonald.

The Dance Music event had contestants perform traditional jigs, strathspeys and reels, judged on their feel for step-dance music by step-dancers Frank McConnell and Sandra Robertson.

The judges and competitors were separated by a screen so they could focus solely on sound.

Also competing were Finlay Cameron, Decker Forest, Rachel Gray, Fionnlagh Mac A’ Phiocair, James MacKenzie, Cameron MacNeil, Ciar Milne, Angus Nicolson, Ailis Sutherland and Hazel Whyte.

MacDonald commented that this year’s pipers “demonstrated a much greater understanding of what was required of them, with some genuine research and true originality having gone into many of the pìobaireachd airs.”

The event concluded with much revelry at the Raasay Distillery, and even more at Sligachan after a short ferry trip to Sconser, Isle of Skye.

The Raasay Restitution Competition has been sponsored by the Isle of Raasay Distillery since the competition started in 2024, and both the Raasay Distillery and Raasay House Hotel are on board for 2027.

The competition organizers also announced they’re staging “The Raasay in Pitlochry!,” a concert at the Pitlochry Town Hall, Pitlochry, Scotland, on Friday, October 30th, the night before the Glenfiddich Piping Solo Championships held just down the road at Blair Castle in Blair Atholl.

Ross Ainslie, Angus D. MacColl and a quartet of Scottish smallpipers and uilleann pipers – Brighde Chaimbeul, Fin Moore, Louise Mulcahy and Tiernan Ó Duinnchinn – will perform on the night.

Tickets are available here for £22.50 (£17.25 for students, pensioners, and those between jobs).