The Gordon Duncan Memorial Solo Piping Competition
The first Gordon Duncan Memorial Solo Piping Competition was held, as part of the Celtic Connections Festival, on the 28th January 2007 at the Holiday Inn-City West in Glasgow. Gordon had been one of the musicians who performed as part of Celtic Connections since the start. Formally and informally he would be playing.

In memory of Gordon the Gordon Duncan Solo Piping Competition was created. Competitors were invited from Scotland, from Ireland and from Brittany to compete for the Gordon Duncan Trophy which was kindly donated by McCallums Bagpipes (see picture).
Three pipers were invited from each domain and every piper competed in each domain, similar to the long running competitions at the Inter-Celtic Music Festival held in Lorient, Brittany. Gordon himself won the Lorient Inter-Celtic Festival Competition, at that time called The MacAllan Trophy. Gordon was an enthusiastic player of Breton and Irish music as well as traditional Scottish music and he would share this love of the music with those who knew him. He was possibly better known in Brittany than in Scotland!

A tale about Gordon
There was one occasion, after a late night/early morning session, Gordon decided to head home to Pitlochry for a day in the middle of the Celtic Connections Festival. He got on the train at Queen’s Street station, heading for Perth where he would change train to head North to Pitlochry. He got on the train, fell asleep and woke up in Dundee! He waited a while then got a train back from Dundee to Perth. He fell asleep again and ended back at Queen’s Street station. He never made it home but was well rested and went straight back into the music at the Festival!
Pictured: Gordon with his first MacAllan Trophy and the two MacAllan Trophies which he kept like “Wally Dugs” on his mantelpiece!
The Competitors
The details and results of each annual Gordon Duncan Memorial Solo Piping Competition are as follows: