Tiree piper wins top award
A piper from Tiree came top overall in the Glenfiddich Piping Championship at the weekend.
Finlay Johnston came first in piobaireachd playing My Dearest On Earth Give Me Your Kiss.
The 45th Glenfiddich Piping Championship, held at Blair Castle near Pitlochry on Saturday October 27, ‘seeks the best overall exponents of ceol mor or piobaireachd (the great music) and ceol beag or light music (the little music)’.
Ten competitors qualified to play for the ram’s horn trophy, ‘the pinnacle of piping’, in the Great Hall, including Callum Beaumont, Stuart Easton, Finlay Johnston, Stuart Liddell, Bruce Gandy, Jack Lee, Angus MacColl, Dr Peter McCalister, Roderick MacLeod, and Alex Gandy.
Johnston, who teaches at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, began learning the pipes from his grandfather Alastair Sinclair on the Isle of Tiree, and his mother Annie was the first woman to win the Silver Medal.
The 32-year-old said: ‘I’m overwhelmed. It’s a competition I’ve watched my entire piping career – one I’ve looked up to. To now have won, it is unbelievable.’
He was followed in the ceol mor by Dollar Academy teacher Callum Beaumont, Inveraray and District Pipe Band Pipe Major Stuart Liddell, Oban High School Pipe Band pipe major Angus MacColl from Benderloch, and Canadian Alex Gandy.
Gandy, from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, was competing beside his father Bruce – the first time a father and son have played against each other in the contest since it began in 1974. It was also the first time a husband and wife had judged together, with Murray and Patricia Henderson serving on separate benches.
Callum Beaumont triumphed in the march, Strathspey and reel, with Alex Gandy coming second, Finlay Johnston third, Angus MacColl fourth, and Stuart Liddell fifth.