CPA - Competing Pipers Association

Kiltpin Prize for Senior Piobaireachd at Inveraray Games

2009 shall see the inaugural awarding of the Dr. Leslie M. Craig Memorial Kiltpin to the winner of the senior piobaireachd at Inveraray Highland Games. The winner will be entitled to keep it, as a new one will be awarded each year.

Dr. Craig was the local family doctor between 1970 and 1983, and he was a keen amateur piper, and good piobaireachd player. He was also the Convenor of the Games Piping Committee until his death in 2004.

The current Convenor of the Piping Committee, Robert Stewart, was keen to have some means of commemorating Leslie's contribution to the Games, and he thought that an award for the Senior Piobaireachd would be fitting, and instead of a medal, a kiltpin which could be worn by the winner would be unusual and appropriate.

The original design for the kiltpin was drawn by Eilidh Keith, originally from Inveraray, who is a piper herself, and one of Scotland's leading stained glass artists. The emblem in the middle of the badge on the pin is a West Highland Galley or birlinn. The design is based on that in the Book of Remembrance in Glenaray and Inveraray Parish Church, the book remembering the dead of the parish from the two World Wars, but it also commemorates Leslie's Highland origins. Although he was born in Glasgow, his mother was a MacDonald from Skye, and the birlinn is a key element in the coat of arms of the MacDonald chiefs. Round the badge is an inscription in Gaelic "Duais na Piobaireachd" (the Piobaireachd Prize) and the name "Inbhir Aora" which is Gaelic for Inveraray. The badge is being created by Eleanor MacDougall who is a silversmith based in Fionnphort on the Isle of Mull.