This year saw the 35th Glenfiddich Championship. The competition, founded in 1974 has come to be a permanent fixture and is a major occasion in the piping calendar. The great antler-lined hall of Blair Castle could hardly be bettered as a place to hold this event.

Blair Castle stands large and gleaming white in beautiful and extensive grounds, not far from the Pass of Killiecrankie (Bealach Coille Chneagaidh to give it its Gaelic name). In spite of the appalling weather this year, the pass was a magnificent sight.

The competition is in two parts. In the first, each competitor has to play a piobaireachd, one from the list of seven of his own choice that he will have submitted. Piobaireachd is the unique classical music of the Highland Bagpipe, and is to be found nowhere else in the world. In the second part, each plays a set of march, strathspey and reel, one of each from the list of six submitted, and plays each tune through twice.

First to play in the piobaireachd was Bruce Gandy, from Canada, who won the U.S. Piping Federation competition and came second in the former winners’ march, strathspey and reel at Oban. It was his sixth time competing at Blair. He was asked to play The Battle of the Pass of Crieff. This was scarcely a battle, a mere skirmish with some Excise men. But the tune is also called The Laird of Coll’s Barge, and is said to have been composed by one of the Rankin family, pipers to MacLean of Coll, in about 1730. It should, so John Wilson told us, be played with a rowing rhythm.

Next to play was William McCallum, making his 21st consecutive appearance at Blair. He was asked to play Lachlan MacNeil Campbell of Kintarbert’s Fancy. The origin, composer, and original name of this tune are all unknown. But it was known to be a great favourite of Lachlan MacNeil Campbell of Kintarbert, in Argyll, who was well known as a piper of considerable merit in the early 19th century. Willie McCallum took third prize with this performance.

Niall Stewart, winner of the Gold Medal at Oban this year, making his first appearance at the Glenfiddich, played The Lament for Donald Duaghal MacKay. This tune is said by some to be a composition of Donald Mor MacCrimmon; while others say the composer is Iain Dall MacKay. Donald Duaghal was the first Lord Reay, a noted soldier of his time and leader of mercenaries. He was knighted in 1616 and raised to the peerage in 1647. He was very active throughout the Thirty Years war, and died shortly after it in 1649.

Gordon Walker played Scarce of Fishing to take second prize for piobaireachd. The tune is melodious and introspective, with a kind of wandering melody line. It is said to refer to a year in which the fish were very few, perhaps in the Awe. But it also bears the name Loch Nell’s Lament; Campbell of Loch Nell (which is near Oban) is the senior chieftain of Clan Campbell, so this might be its true title.

Fifth to play was Roderick MacLeod, who has also played in this event many times and won the overall championship three times. His tune was The Earl of Ross’s March, a composition of Donald Mor MacCrimmon in about 1600 on the death of the Earl of Ross, descended from Robert I and from the Lords of the Isles. This excellent performance secured the Highland Society of London Trophy, the first prize for piobaireachd.

Angus MacColl, who has won the championship twice before, played The Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon. This famous tune, one of the great laments, was composed by Iain Dall MacKay, a pupil of Patrick Og, on being told, erroneously, that his former master had died. Angus played the ground of this tune somewhat faster than is usual, but nonetheless won fourth prize with it.

Greg Wilson, from New Zealand, played that formidable tune Praise of Morag. As John Wilson told us, by way of introduction, it seems to be connected with a poem by Alexander MacDonald (Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair as he is usually called), a very vigorous and outspoken poet of the 18th Century. The poem is in unrestrained praise of Morag, and greatly displeased his wife, so he wrote a sequel, to mollify her, In Dispraise of Morag. But the Dunollie Bard, Dougal MacDougall, writing at the end of the 19th century, states that the tune was originally the MacDougalls’ gathering tune. But although The MacDougalls’ Gathering is a well known tune, it is quite different.

Chris Armstrong, earned his place by winning the Bratach Gorm piobaireachd competition in London in 2007, and last appeared at Blair in 2003. He played The Lament for the Children to win fifth prize for piobaireachd. This is a most beautiful lament, perhaps one of the greatest tunes of all time, composed by Patrick Mor MacCrimmon after the death of seven of his eight sons in the same year in a smallpox epidemic.

Alan Bevan, winner of the Gold Medal at the Northern Meeting this year, played My King has Landed at Moidart, composed in 1745 by John MacIntyre, on the arrival of Prince Charles Edward in Scotland.