Hilltop tribute to our fallen
A poignant remembrance service was held on top of Dumyat in the Ochil Hills on Sunday.
Around 130 people, including exmilitary personnel and relatives made their way to the summit of the hill to remember those who served their Queen and country.
The service took place around the a cap badge memorial to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders which sits at the peak.
The 300-kilogram steel monument to the valour of the Argylls was made by David Gray and placed in position in 2014. It replaced a concrete monument to the regiment created by Mr Gray’s father Major David Gray MBE in 1967.
David, originally from Causewayhead, served with the Argylls himself until 1968 and he conducted Sunday’s service.
He hired two all-terrain vehicles, driven by his son and son-in-law, to help older relatives and former servicemen, some in their 80s, to reach the monument.
Piper Alex Souter, from the Argyll’s Balaclava Company, was in attendance and trumpeter Rebecca Paul performed the Last Post.
Major Gray made the original monument when the Argylls faced disbandment as part of a general downsizing of the Army.
A ‘Save the Argylls’ campaign involving the petitioning of Parliament resulted in a compromise under which a single regular company retained the title and colours of the regiment.
‘Balaclava Company’ continued as an independent unit from January 20, 1971 until the regiment was restored to full battalion size on January 17, 1972. It was an infantry regiment of the British Army until amalgamation into The Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2006.