The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) has chosen Dumbarton as the venue for the prestigious Scottish Piping Championship for the next three years.

In a massive boost for the area, Dumbarton will host the event in Levengrove Park until 2012 after seeing off serious competition.

Gordon Hamill, an organiser for the Dumbarton District Pipe Band, is delighted: ‘I think Levengrove Park is chosen as a hosting venue because it is a fantastic setting and it is probably one of the best venues that the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) could use, what with Dumbarton Castle and the Rock in the background.’

Mr Hamill, who is also the vice chairman of the RSPBA, feels that the excitement of the championships in the area brings more people into piping. He points out that: ‘West Dunbartonshire is one of the few areas that doesn’t teach piping in schools so we are the only band in the area who teach children piping and drumming skills’.

The shining success of the Inveraray & District Pipe Band in Mid Argyll, under dedicated Pipe Major Stuart Liddell, is a template for what piping can do for young people – with all of the transferable skills of confidence, discipline, teamwork, synchronisation, co-ordination and integration of the physical with the music and the aesthetic (except for the pipers’ attempt to dance the Strathspey!).

Inveraray now has two bands and the competition for places is intense. The town has also benefitted from the star dust their world champion band has sprinkled on it.

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