Swirling Bagpipes Come to Aberdeen

Nothing creates excitement and grabs the attention of a crowd like the sights and sounds of massed pipe bands. For many it’s a nostalgic sound, a reminder of their ancestoral home, which often brings a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat.

The sound bagpipes will echo through the Upper Hunter township of Aberdeen, north of Muswellbrook on the New England Highway, on the morning of Saturday 2nd July, 2016, with the running of the 17th annual Aberdeen Highland Games.

This event is the town’s highly regarded cultural weekend – a highlight of the social calendar year for the past sixteen years.

President of the Aberdeen Highland Games is Charles Cooke, who in the year 2000 was approached with the idea of running highland games in Aberdeen. “At first I resisted this move, mainly due to the amount of work that I knew was required, and I doubted that sufficient support was there. Oh, how wrong can you be,” Charles said.

Charles’ maternal side hailed from the Isle of Skye and he was proud of his Clan MacLeod connection. He is a drummer with Scone RSL Pipes & Drums, together with his two sons – one a piper and the other a drummer.

Read more in Edition 79 of Hunter & Coastal Lifestyle Magazine.

Story Marilyn Collins.