The Army in Scotland is delighted to announce that The Pipers' Trail will be joining in South Queensferry's Homecoming 2009 celebrations on Saturday 19th September 2009.

It will be an action packed day of fun and events including a marching band parade, tattoo style concert and céilidh.

The Pipers' Trail will be leading the parade.

The Pipers' Trail band will have over 30 players including the Pipes and Drums of 51st Highland, 7th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (7 SCOTS) who will be joined by children from local primary schools.

The Pipers' Trail has spent the past week visiting local primary schools - including Bo'ness Primary School, South Queensferry Primary School, Echline Primary School, Dalmeny Primary School, and St Margaret's Primary School - and introduced pupils to military drumming and piping.

Drum Major Drew Caldwell said: "We are delighted to have been invited to South Queensferry's Homecoming and taking The Pipers' Trail into the schools.

"We've visited local primary schools during the past week and given hundreds of youngsters the chance to play pipes and drums.

"We hope that youngsters will be inspired to improve or take up the Scottish musical instruments."

Last year, The Pipers' Trail brought pipe and drum music to hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland, visiting almost 50 locations on the journey from Shetland to Edinburgh. Over 1000 people attended piping and drumming workshops, a figure that has already been surpassed in 2009. Workshops have been run in over 85 schools during 2009.

During the day events include:

Brass Band Concert
4.30 - 5pm
Roysth Concert Band and Leith Brass Band will perform on the street next to Hawes Brae car park.

Marching Band Parade
5pm
Marching bands and local school children get into position from 4.45pm, and move off towards the High Street after the brass band finishes at 5pm.

Tattoo Style Concert
6.30pm
Various local pipe / brass bands coming together playing as one massed band.

Céilidh at South Queensferry Primary School
8pm - 12pm
Music by the SAS Ceilidh Band. Tickets are priced at £5 for band members (purchased in advance) and £7 on the night.

Tickets can be purchased at the Stag Head Hotel, High Street, South Queensferry, or call or email Alan Potters on 07834 903 858 / accordianband @hotmail.com .

For more information on Queensferry Homecoming 2009, please visit: http://queensferryhomecoming2009.webs.com
 

We're hitting the trail again soon!

Dates have been announced for schools and locations in Aberdeen, Shetland, South Queensferry and Bathgate.

Please visit where we're going to see the latest locations.

If you'd like us to come and visit your school, please get in touch.

We’re delighted to announce that The Pipers’ Trail will be joining in South Queensferry’s Homecoming 2009 celebrations. Saturday 19th September will be an action packed day of fun and with events including a marching band parade, tattoo style concert and céilidh.

The Pipers’ Trail will be leading the marching band parade, which moves off from Hawes Brae car park at 5pm, moving along Hawes Brae Road, East Terrance, High St, Hopetoun Rd and Rose Lane leading to the park. The Pipers’ Trail band will have over 30 players from the accomplished 7 SCOTS pipes and drums band, with children from the local primary schools joining in the procession.

A full list of the day’s events:

Brass Band Concert
4.30 – 5pm
Roysth Concert Band and Leith Brass Band will be performing on the street next to Hawes Brae car park entrance.

Marching Band Parade
5pm
Marching bands and local school kids get into position from 4.45pm, and move off towards the High St once the brass band finishes at 5pm.

Tattoo Style Concert
6.30pm
Various local pipe / brass bands coming together playing as one massed band. Taking place on Hawes Brae Road.

Céilidh at Queensferry Primary School
8pm – 12pm
Music is being provided by the SAS Ceilidh Band. Tickets are priced at £5 for band members (purchased in advance) and £7 on the night. You can by tickets at the Stag Head Hotel on S. Queensferry's High St, or call or email Alan Potters on 07834 903 858 / accordianband@hotmail.com .

We’ll also be running a piping and drumming workshop at local primary schools earlier in the week , where we’ll be taking the kids through the basics of playing the pipes and drums and preparing them for the weekend’s procession.

The weekend’s celebrations are sure to be a hit with the whole family so come along, look out for us on the day and give us a wave if you see us!

For more information on Queensferry Homecoming 2009, please visit: http://queensferryhomecoming2009.webs.com

 

Following the popularity of The Pipers' Trail workshops with school kids all over Scotland, we're hoping to hold some more piping and drumming workshops this August.

The proposed piping and drumming workshops are for Beginner, Novice Juvenile and Grade 4 pipers and drummers. They will take place from 10am - 4.30pm on Sat 22nd and Sun 23rd August at HQ 51 (Scottish) Brigade, Forthside, Stirling [map].

We can accommodate 20 pipers and 20 drummers plus an additional 10 bass and tenor drummers on each day.

Places are available to book now on a strict first-come, first-served basis.

Please contact  Drew Caldwell on 07785 33 00 41 to reserve your place.

NOTE: Workshops will run assuming we can get enough people for each. Judging by previous experience this won't be a problem, but please be aware they could be cancelled if we don't get enough numbers.

Our next stage of the Trail started with a bang in the historic Highland town of Fort William, three workshops in three different primary schools in one day! We visited Upper Achintore, Fort William Primary and Fort William RC School, all of which were extremely enthusiastic about our visit. Everyone participated well and there were some excellent questions from the staff and children. We delivered the workshop to about 250 kids that day – very busy but completely worth the effort.

The next day, we headed up toward Skye where we visited two schools either side of the bridge – Kyle Primary on the mainland and Kyleakin Primary across the water on Skye. We started in Kyleakin Primary, where we met a great bunch of kids – eight of which already played the chanter. Pipe Major Taylor was impressed by the level of competence of the kids, thanks to the excellent tuition from their teacher Mr Stuart. Later that day we visited Kyle Primary, a larger school and again full of talented kids. We had great time there with lots of positive feedback, with around 125 kids taking part in the workshop.

That evening, we joined in a small music session in the Plockton Inn, which is famous for its Scottish folk music. The room was packed with locals and tourists, who were treated to a session of great music played by some of Scotland’s finest musicians. Many thanks to Sandy and Marcus for letting us join in.

Portree Primary was our next destination. We’d previously visited the school back in April to deliver a workshop but we couldn’t fit everyone in, so we came back again! The school is bulging with enthusiasm and talent, with lots of eager students. It was a pleasure to teach them, thanks to their first class behaviour and support for teachers – a big thanks goes out to headmaster Mr Finlayson.

That evening we played in the Pier Hotel, they don’t usually host live music but it turned out to be an excellent session. A big thanks to Donald, Frazer and Anne for looking after us so well.

The next day, we took the ferry across to Uist and travelled down to Daliburgh School in South Uist. There were around 20 young chanter players who were excellent, a credit to the fine tuition from Mr Donald MacDonald. Around 30 kids gave the drumming class a go and despite never having played the drums before, they thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the lesson. An added bonus to the morning was a first class performance from Aberdeen OTC Drums and Pipes, led by Pipe Major Mike Laing. It really added some buzz to the day, many thanks to the entire band.

In the evening, we got together with Aberdeen OTC Drums and Pipes and gave a public performance at the Lochboisdale hotel. Dozens of locals turned up to watch a mini beating retreat, which was followed by a first class music session. I was a great night which will be remembered for years to come.

The last workshop of this stage of Trail was held in Linoclate High School, Benbecula. This workshop was tailor made for the school’s pipes and drums band. Their piping tutor had asked us to help the band prepare for the world pipe band championships. We covered musical performance and drill which will help them at the championships. Hopefully we’ll see them again before the event.

That wrapped up this latest phase of the Trail. So far, we’ve delivered the workshop to almost 5000 children across Scotland. We’re taking a short break and hope to be back again in September to visit more schools around the country.

If you’d like us to visit your school when we start again, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you. Until then, there’ll be lots of great pipe and drum music at Armed Forces Day events around Scotland for you to watch, have a great summer!
 

Having run piping and drumming workshops in over 40 schools across Scotland, we’ve been delighted to receive dozens of letters from kids and teachers who’ve taken part in this years’ Pipers’ Trail. We love reading your letters, it’s great to know we’ve inspired so many young potential pipers and drummers.

Here’s a sample of some of the letters we’ve recieved.

It has been another exciting week on The Pipers’ Trail, this week we’ve been travelling around the Highlands and down to Fort William.

Our week began in the lovely town of Kingussie, not far from the famous winter sports hub of Aviemore. We visited Kingussie Primary where we were impressed to find that quite a few pupils could already play the practice chanter, but nobody had tried the drums before. Over 70 kids from P5 – P7 joined in, and we also played a musical introduction to the whole school. A very successful and enjoyable day overall.

The next day was a busy one, delivering two workshops in two different locations. We started off in the morning at South Lodge Primary School in Invergordon. Again, another group of very talented pupils who already had some experience of playing the chanter, Scott was able to go through more advanced skills with them. Later that day, we headed a couple of streets away to Park Primary to deliver the second workshop. Everyone joined in, even the teachers were showing promise of developing some real piping and drumming skills! Between the two schools, around 150 kids received the workshop.

We stayed north of Inverness the following day too, visiting schools in Alness and Evanton. First up was Bridgend School, where we had a great morning which was wrapped up by competition between the pipers and drummers. It was a close call but I think the drummers had it at the end! Our next visit was to Kiltearn Primary. This is an area which has produced some fantastic musicians in the past so it was no surprise when we saw the kids. We delivered a drumming workshop to 48 enthusiastic kids, and the teachers joined in also. The piping class went equally as well with an attentive and enthusiastic bunch of kids. Around 180 pupils in total between the two schools took part in the workshops.

Our last workshop of the week was in Locharber High School. It was delivered to a mix of total beginners and established players, who got on well and helped each other. It was a small group of around 20 kids, but we had a great day with first class students and teachers.

This week we’re going to be around Fort William and the Isle of Skye, check out where we’re going to find out dates and if we'll be visiting your school.

The Pipers' Trail has won a PR Excellence award at the Marketing Society Scotland’s Star Awards!

The Star Awards are aimed at celebrating the most dynamic marketing campaigns in Scotland and this year received a record 191 entries across 27 categories.

The Pipers’ Trail won the PR Excellence award, up against competition in the same category from The Big Partnership, The Edrington Group and Visitscotland.

Last year, the Trail brought pipe and drum music to hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland, visiting almost 50 locations on the journey from Shetland to Edinburgh. Over 1000 people attended piping and drumming workshops, a figure we've already smashed this year. Workshops have run in over 85 schools this year so far, take a look at where we're going to find out if we'll be visiting a school in your area.

It’s been a busy spell on The Pipers’ Trail, we’ve been visiting schools around the west coast down through Dumfries and Galloway.

We kicked off last week with a visit to Kirkbean and St. Andrews Primary, where 200 pupils received the workshop.

On Tuesday, we set off towards Dumfries and Galloway, starting off the day in the village of Borgue near Kirkcudbright where 42 pupils from the local school took part. We then headed north to Springholm Primary where we delivered the workshop to 140 pupils.

We had an excellent workshop at Glasgow Central College on Wednesday. It was attended by 20 students from the ages of 14 - 17, everyone participated well and said they’d be interested in doing it again.

Thursday kicked off bright and early at Kells Primary in New Galloway, and then on to Sorbie Primary in the afternoon. Both schools we very appreciative of their visit from the Trail, where we taught around 80 kids from P4 - P7.

We arrived at Castle Douglas School on Tuesday 26th May, which had around 230 pupils taking part in the workshops – as you can imagine, it turned out to be a busy day! The workshop was very well received by both pupils and staff and was well worth the effort.

Our final school visits of the 10 day trip were to Wallacehall and Duncow Primary, just north of Dumfries. We delivered the workshop to 130 pupils that day, the kids said they really enjoyed the tuition and the Trail experience.

All in all, we delivered the workshop to around 842 pupils over the 10 days, bringing the total number of kids who’ve participated in The Pipers’ Trail workshops to a whopping 3330! We’ve had a great welcome wherever we’ve visited and really hope that we’ve encouraged more kids to take up the pipes and drums, and to get involved with their local community bands.
 

The numbers just keep on rising! To date, The Pipers' Trail has visited 85 schools, delivering workshops to over 2500 school kids. We've had a fantastic reception from all the schools we've visited, all the kids have been really keen to join in - there's some real musical talent out there!

We're also delighted by the feedback we've received from teachers and pupils, letters and emails have been flooding in - thanks to everyone who has written to us, it's really appreciated.

Details of the schools we’ll be visiting over the next few weeks are now up in the where we’re going section.

We've just uploaded lots of photos to our Flickr page from recent Trail workshops all over Scotland. Click on a picture below to view the set.

Have you got any good photos of this years' trail? We'd love to see them, send them to enquiries@thepiperstrail.com and we'll put them up on our Flickr.

	Dumfries and Galloway Schools
	Dornoch Academy
	Smithton Academy
	Inverness High St. March
	Longniddry Springfest
	Youthpoint Glasgow
	Plockton High

Following a ten day tour of the Highlands with performances and workshops in over 50 primary and secondary schools in the region, The Pipers’ Trail will come to a noisy finale in Inverness city centre on Thursday 23 April 2009 at 7pm.

Led by the Pipes and Drums of The Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland with support from 1 Highlanders Army Cadet Force Pipe Band, the Inverness Royal British Legion Pipe Band, the Charleston and Nairn Pipe Band and members from the Highland Youth Pipe Band, the Pipers’ Trail will parade through Inverness City Centre up to the Castle bringing the Highland leg of the Trail to a close at 8pm.

Last year, the Trail visited over 40 locations across Scotland, with tens of thousands of people coming out to watch the parades, attend workshops and play along with musicians on the Trail. This year, the Pipers’ Trail visited over 30 schools throughout the Highlands demonstrating some of the simple skills needed to start to learn the pipes and give children a chance to try it for themselves.

Drum Major Drew Caldwell, explained: “I’ve been astounded by the huge amount of interest shown by the youngsters in every place we’ve visited. The support for traditional pipe and drum music in entrenched in every generation which is evident by the number of people who attended our workshops and have supported us along the route.”

Drew Caldwell continued: “Tonight’s performance in Inverness is our way of thanking the people of Inverness and the surrounding districts and we’re looking forward to putting on a very special performance for them. Next week we’re taking the Pipers’ Trail to Glasgow and we’re looking forward to coming back to the Highlands as part of Armed Forces Day in June.”
 

Event details
Date: Thursday 23rd April 2009
Time: 7.00pm
Location: Eastgate Shopping Centre (M&S entrance), Inverness