Archive
We started the exclusive series of Castle Recordings made by Captain John A. MacLellan MBE in the 1960s in March 2024, and 151 tunes and 18 installments later, it’s fitting to wrap the series with a brief recorded conversation with Colin MacLellan. Colin came to us with the idea of […]
In his day, Captain John A. MacLellan MBE attended not a few black-tie celebration dinners in Edinburgh and Glasgow where some of history’s greatest pipers – including himself – would perform. Since 2011, the Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Memorial Dinner & Recital Competition has become probably the premier event […]
Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, was the winner of the 2025 MacCrimmon Trophy at the 54th annual Festival Interceltique de Lorient, the annual solo piping competition that combines Breton, Irish and Scottish music events. Each competitor was invited to the event by winning various qualifying events worldwide.
Callum Beaumont won the overall trophy in the Senior solo piping at the annual Aboyne Highland Games in Scotland’s scenic Royal Deeside region, winning the Piobaireachd and Strathspey & Reel. Willie McCallum also had a fine day, winning the March and enjoying a second in both the Piobaireachd and Hornpipe & Jig. Seventeen competed.
The 72nd Ulster Pipe Band Championships were held at West Strand Bay in an ideal setting just beside the beach, and Manorcunningham won Grade 2, the top contested event of the day. The only Grade 1 band to play was Ravara after Closkelt elected to withdraw.
Maxville, Ontario – August 2, 2025 – Ulster Scottish of Philadelphia won the aggregate prize in the Grade 2 band competition, the highest-level contested event at the 2025 Glengarry Highland Games, held in sunny and warm (but not hot) weather that attracted a large crowd. Ulster Scottish won the MSR […]
Ian K. MacDonald of Whitby, Ontario, had the most aggregate points across the five solo events to win the North American Solo Piping Championship at the 2025 Glengarry Highland Games, and Blair Beaton of Scotia, New York, won the equivalent overall trophy in the Professional Snare Drumming.
Gordon McCready of Renfrew, Scotland, continued his 2025 solo piping success by winning the overall trophy at the Dundonald Games in South Ayrshire in sunny and hot weather.
Bruce Gandy of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, won the Bar to the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada), and Joe Biggs from Ajax, Ontario, won the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada) at the annual piobaireachd competitions held at the St. Michael & All Angels Anglican Church in the small farming community in the eastern part of Canada’s most populous province.
The 150th anniversary of the birth of the great piper, leader, gentleman and composer John “Jock” McLellan was marked at a packed official opening of the John McLellan DCM 150th Anniversary Photo Exhibition in Dunoon’s famed Burgh Hall on July 31st. The exhibition will run until August 30th, the last […]
The march-past has been a tradition at UK pipe band competitions for as long as they’ve existed, but for the first time, North American-style “massed bands” will be “trialled” at a Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association major championship, the European, in Perth, Scotland, on August 9th. It is not known […]
With an Sgùrr, the pinnacle of the Inner Hebrides Isle of Eigg, in the distance, Traigh Farm was once again the location for the annual Arisaig Highland Games, where 12 competed in the Senior (18 and older) solo piping events and six in the Juniors.
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has responded to pipes|drums’ request for comment and their perspective on Grade 3A City of Newcastle not being entered to compete at the 2025 World Championships. After receiving no response from RSPBA Chief Executive Colin Mulhern, pipes|drums was advised that Jackie Allan is the […]
Forty-five pipe bands and 259 solo pipers and drummers will descend on the tiny eastern Ontario farming town of Maxville to compete at the 2025 Glengarry Highland Games, Friday, August 1st, and Saturday, August 2nd, the world’s largest band and solo competition by number of events, 63 in all. The […]
Seventeen bands competed at the 2025 Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games at Enumclaw Expo Center on the western outskirts of Seattle. St. Thomas Alumni from Houston travelled the 2,000 miles to make a Grade 1 competition with Simon Fraser University. SFU won both events with first-place rankings from all eight judges. Greighlan Crossing continued their run of success in Grade 3 before heading far east for the North American Championships at the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville, Ontario.
The Grade 3A City of Newcastle is a well-established band that competes regularly on the UK circuit, but it isn’t being permitted to show its stuff at the 2025 World Pipe Band Championships because the band’s secretary didn’t tick a box on the entry form. According to Pipe-Major Andy Clark, […]