Upcoming Live shows www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx Find out about the history of the bagpipes at ruclips.net/video/mhakTyPsnPY/видео.html Buy me coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/ScottishBruce
My grandfather had been a pipe major of the black watch from the late thirties through the war and into the 50s, when he was also a piper for Queen Elizabeth at Holyrood and Balmoral. Upon leaving the forces he took up an offer to come to New Zealand to teach a pipe band that was just forming - Eitham Pipes and Drums (now amalgamated with Stratford and District Highland Pipe Band) - and also to teach piping judges how to judge.
My great uncle was a Black Watch piper, and my grandfather wrote pipe music. In fact, I've got a piece that the family has never heard, as the pipes are passed down to the eldest, and the last two haven't learned to play. I'm hoping to hear it before I pass on.
As a lover of Highland games, I joined he society to bring the games to Dawson City, Yukon in the far north of Canada. I am not sure if we were the world's most northerly Highland games, but if not, we must have been close! The competitors who came loved our laid back way of doing things, and how spectators, and competitors were so close, making things very friendly. And, as the place with the largest Gold Rush in the world, we actually gave gold nuggets as prizes!
I'm doing live shows in Canada in 2024. Shows in Halifax, Annapolis, New Glasgow, Moncton, Montreal, Perth , Ottawa, Toronto, Fergus, Seaforth, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Most of the details are here www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx
This episode made me think of when I was a little girl growing up in St Paul, MN my Dad would take me to the highland festival I had so much fun I loved the dancing, wished I could do that, and the games on the field were great to watch, such strength. I get excited when I hear the sound of bagpipes cause you know there's a good time to be had. I wish they had the highland festival close where I live I'd take my family. ☮️♥️😀 From New Baltimore, Michigan, USA
An absolute cracker of a video with some great interviews and the games looked packed with enthusiastic locals and participants! Thanks for these videos Bruce 🏴✊
...gotta make your way over here🇨🇦 sometime, Bruce. "Glengarry Highland Games" (North American Piping Championship) - where a wee town in Eastern Ontario swells to many thousands in early August every year. Place🇨🇦 has been indelibly impacted by Scots - from inception til now - all over, everywhere😊👍
Excellent video. Glad you enjoyed your day at Maclean. I didn't get to catch up with you, you spoke with my wife on the Friday at Ceilidh in street. I was born in St Andrews and brought up in Markinch. I cycled at many games over the years and that is where I met my wife. Been here for 34 years and been involved with the Scottish culture since. I brought the idea of the Tartan poles and we had 5 done for the Olympic torch coming through and we now have 200. I made the trophy presented to the dancer, the old one was full, I made a similar one for Pitlochry Games to replace a lost cup, which I was the inaugural winner off in 1991. I introduced the sports and made the equipment and from it's humble beginnings, has grown to quite a spectacle for the crowd. I also built the current stage, which we have been using now for 20 years. I'm the pork with fluro shirt who pulled up in white Landrover. I used to play the pipes. We have a great little community in Maclean and I love it. The weather was kind to us this year and the crowd and massed bands were amazing. Haste ye back.
I heard how passionate the Americans are of their heritage, even to the point of having them all things Scottish festy's every year somewhere in Carolina, it seems the Aussies are just as proud.
I've also read of big Welsh traditions in Australia (someone mentioned it at the Welsh Viking channel, which incidentally I think may be responsible for the RUclips algorhythm recommending this one) so, yeah. 🙂
Thank so much for this video. Well done Clan McLean for the gathering and games. Also glad to see you having so much fun while you`re over here. There is so much Scottish heritage in Australia. I`m happy to say my own Clan are represented by the Town, Armstrong in my State of Victoria.
Bruce, you knocked it out of the park with this one. Couldn't be more happier for ya, I can feel the hairs on me back standin straight up. Inspirational, glè mhath!
My better half and I are musicians. She's an excellent violinist, and being of Irish descent took a liking to Fiddling. I'm a multi instrumentalist, playing guitar, piano, mandolin family, Tenor and 5 string banjo, bagpipes (both Great Highland and bellows blown Scottish smallpipes, penny whistles, flute, and bodhran). In 1991, we joined with a few other area musicians and formed a Irish/Scottish Tradition Band. For the next 16 years we performed at least once weekly, and around Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico at bars, pubs and occassional public events. Twice performing at the Pikes Peak Highland Games. Membership varied between 3 to 7 musicians over those years (I enjoyed it most when there was 6 to 7 members, as then I could move between instruments depending upon what the songs needed). In 2008, our other fiddler lost what remained of his vision, and chose to retire, as he had bad anxiety attacks after going totally blind. Three of us kept it going for another year, but the financial crisis ended a lot of the venues we performed at. Most of the owners saw a significant drop in their businesd and couldn't afford to pay us. The crisis really hit the local music as scene badly. We decided to hang it up after that. My wife and I still play for friends and our own pleasure, but not anywhere else officially. Made enough money at it for quite a number of those year, that we were taxed on the income. We had joined the Scottish Society of the Pikes Peak Region for quite a while, and helped put on the yearly Highland Games. A couple of years I ran the Children's Games. Aside from the usual events kids could participate in, I came up with a variation of hitting a Pináta filled with candy, while the kids were blindfolded and given a club I dubbed "Hack the Sassenach," that the kids loved to participate in. A hollow paper-mache, candy filled dummy painted to look like a British Recoat. In the late 90s, the Society Chief, retired, and sadly, most voted for the New Chief, that I knew was a poor choice. I'd heard the man piss and moan about how he'd run the society enough at other times, that I still don't know why anyone voted. The Games had always been a break even venture, and he was of the opinion that catering towards children was why, and he didn't like having children involved at all. Short sighted, because unless we pass those Scottish Culture and Traditions on to the kids, we all lose out. Under his Chieftanship, the Society Games were cancelled, and membership dropped drastically. So badly, the Society all but ended. There are two other yearly Games in Colorado, Estes Park, the bigger and more famous of the two. Undortunately, they've raised admission Fees, to a point, that the average income individual or family can't easily afford. I used to represent Clan MacKay, and the Clan Organization paid in for the Tent/Table at both Pike's Peak and Ling's Peak games. Estes Park games charged way beyond what the Clan reimbursed Representatives, which meant it had to come from the Representatives to make up the difference. I'd love to attend a Games in Scotland, but it's beyond this retirees means.
I spent a few years painting and carving Celtic knot work on pottery I made and sold it at our Scottish games here in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was so much fun and so heady a time just spending 2~3 day being around Celtic and just chatting with all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) folks who came to be Scot for the day. My favorite things were the Irish wolf hound clubs amazing dogs and the literally hair raising massed pipe bands. I knew I was Scottish and Irish and lots else(the longer your family has been in the U.S. the more mixed the pedigree gets!) I just discovered you a couple of weeks ago and have been hunting up your videos on utube ever since. I finally get to hear Scottish history from a guy with terrific good humor and thought provoking content.it’s perfect for me to have a new binge worthy hobby to discover and fill in the blanks of my knowledge.I’m in a care center and my sole entertainment is the iPad my kids talked me into to spend my Covid stimulus money’s on. I just wish all history was taught by people like you. You make learning fun.😊😊😊😊
Brilliant, Bruce! Always makes me homesick when I see a Games on and hear the pipes! I'm a bit rusty the now, but I was playing side drum since I was a wain, and I competed the Drum Major circuit for nigh 20 years. When I came to university and, later, work in the States, bands and Games were the first things I looked for - and I found them aplenty! We're everywhere lads!!
Great segment. The gentleman that spoke of second sight, my great x5 grandmother (Barbara MacPherson MacLeod) was interviewed about second sight on St Kilda for a book on it. Sir Walter Scott used the information for one of his books. Cool to hear someone else speak of it.
"let me tell you a story!!!" (We apologise for the reaction, but so funny). Your live show was awesome!!! So cool for my family and I to meet Zac and yourself last night. Thanks for your warmth and interest. (Tas is a seperate micro-continent about a billion years older than the rest of OZ, {source oz geographics you tube} hence the Palawa and more modern Tasmanians see ourselves as seperate). If Zac decides to spend more time here he will always find a warm welcome.
"we're stewarts" and kung fu intructor to boot!!! this video really picks up as it gets going. well done once again, not that you need to hear it from me!! lol lookit all those stewart tartans in the parade too oh my
Hi, are you a Stewart as well? I'm the guy Bruce interviews at the start, it was surreal and wonderful to run into him there at the Games😀 It's very hard to see but I was wearing my very special Old Stewart tartan kilt ( specially woven for me in Scotland to the original Wilsons of Bannockburn hues) and also hand sewn to the very old style ( 4yd box pleated). We Stuart, so very lucky to have a lot of choice of tartans 😅
@@vikingsuperpowers ehhh no Im an American mutt. My mom was Spalding, but it was Kennedy Spalding Lawless and Stewarts-Stuarts. My English preferring dad who was also a mutt and not even that english was not having any of that and my Scots Irish grandpa was a mute since ww2 so now that they're all gone it's mostly just a fever! But I have a stewart tartan it's more of a 3 meter blanket I wrap myself in, when I wear it I look, um, well, like Im learning or perhaps just stolen it from someone's christmas things. Yours and your whole towns is much more official and true.
Thanks so much, Bruce, for posting this! We do have games on occasion near me in Dunedin, FL, but they are nothing like the ones I used to see in Scotland with family. We are Stewarts of Appin, and there don't seem to be many of us in the US that I've found. I used the hunting version of our tartan to choose colors for my kitchen remodel, and the family really liked having that reminder of our history. Grandpa wrote pipe music, presumably in part for his brother, a Black Watch piper. Sadly, I've never heard any of his pieces played. Hopefully I can one day find someone to play one!
I'll always remember the look on my late dad's face when I was a kid and we were zooming along on a country road about to turn a corner. No signs or previous hints- " Slow down- Deer!" 🦌🦌🦌( no, NOT slow down Dear!😁) Although also predominantly a Celt, Dad was very scientifically minded, but had the sense to believe implicitly in his Scottish ancestored wife, so slammed down the brakes as safely as possible. As we lurched to a halt , about 50 large deer stampeded from the forest around the blind corner. Ashen faced he said ' How the $@#^% did you know that? '.🤔 Mum shrugged 🤷♀️and said she could just visualize them beforehand. I have 'lucid dreaming' and 'lucid day dreaming' image projection too sometimes which I find hard to explain. It's not 'on tap' though. As they say the clairvoyant's meeting has been 'cancelled due to foreseen circumstances!' ! I smell bush fires* from so far away noone believes me until they too smell smoke half an hour later. Plus in wilderness I can tell when I've been spotted by an animal or person. I just know. * Bit like 'Radar' hearing the helicopters in M*A*S*H but with smell. M&D visited Scotland early this 21st century as well as Shetland etc.
I have zero Scottish ancestry, so watching this video feels a bit strange. It feels a lot less strange when I remember my own Moravian Wallachian ancestry and how I love going to Liptál (the village my grandfather lived in once) to visit their folklore festival... 😊 And much like several of these people, I have the surname to go with the ancestry... It does look like a fun day out.
I enjoy the bagpipes and drum's because I've always thought the tunes were leading me back to my ancestors, maybe they are. My dad told me that his dad could find water in his property with dowsing with the tool's like stick's and he also said it was called witching for water. My dad also had a gift, he could predict my little sisters children's birth it was uncanny the way that he did it, I can tell you exactly everyone of my nieces and nephews birth, because he would start with my sister I'll bring you a sandwich while in the hospital, each one except for her oldest son they were born on a holiday or near one. They had a fuss about no they're not,🙄😜🤯😁🤔 guess whom got the sandwich while in the hospital she did it was more of a tease but he nailed each birth correctly.
I had the same thing with my son I live in brittany France and my boy at 9 years old said he wanted to play the pipes luckily we have a bagadoo local 15 years later he's still playing
Loved this Bruce. So many happy memories of the many games I went to as a youngster before I moved away from Scotland. I did go to the games in Nova Scotia one year, very strange all these kilties not speaking in a Scots accent. It was great just the same.
A bit of training needed on the caber Bruce? These global highland gatherings are really fascinating. We have the The 2023 Peak District Highland Games in August if you fancy another go at the caber
I remember being on holiday on the Isle of Skye (as a kid) and the Highland games were on there and they asked children from the crowd to participate in the running events etc. I got a silver medal running in my Hiking boots XD
Well now you HAVE to come visit the most Scottish town in Canada - Antigonish! We have the oldest Highland Games outside of Scotland and it’s a big county-wide event in July. You’d love it!
I'm doing live shows in Canada in 2024. Shows in Halifax, Annapolis, New Glasgow, Moncton, Montreal, Perth , Ottawa, Toronto, Fergus, Seaforth, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Most of the details are here www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx
Good, its Scotland with sunshine, love it beer tent then the bowling club. Could be any town in a Scotland. Good one Bruce. Enjoy the test of your time down under.
Hey Bruce, love your channel, I've been watching it for years. I would have loved to say hi at the Maclean games, but had to leave early with the family. Keep up the good work though. Haste ye back.
I’m really loving these Australian episodes. The moment you see gum trees you know your in Australia. I grew up playing bagpipes in Far North Queensland and I knew of the Maclean gathering. Great to see the event on your channel.
Love going to the Highland games! When my son first started competing in the athletics, I made him his competition kilt, pleated to the sett, by hand. I always love seeing the massed bands, the reenactments, the vendors and of course the food!
Great show. Wish you would come to the highland games in western North Carolina or east Tennessee(mostly Scot-Irish-son in law is a local Blount Co TN McCall-shortened from ?I forget). My maternal GM was a Kennedy(eastern NC) descended from the Kennedys of Culzean Castle, Ayrshire. (I'm 3/4 English I think-saw a couple of your DNA shows-so you & I are a lot English(sorry) but you've got the Scots accent, I don't). Scot descendants are all over the place--but in America that's all ancient history--everyone's assimilated. Please visit the south eastern US.
Absolutely delightful video Bruce! Someday I hope to get to go to a Highland games event. I did complete in woodsman competition at college. No tree carrying, just chopping them down☺️. Stay awesome!!❤️🏴
excellent! i am beginning my piping journey and recently joined the local pipe band. The great highland bagpipe sound resonates in my soul, always has.
Cool video! 😎👍 Oh, yesterday I learned that the Scots came from Ireland* (I heard that back in the day Ireland was being called Greater Scotia when Scotland was being called Lesser Scotia - which makes me wonder when 'just a skosh' became a 'wee dunkin' - & this helps explain why I'm always getting my Mc's & Mac's mixed 🤪). For this reason all spoke Gaelic at the time. Listening to the differences in speech/accents between Scottish & Irish I find is a lot like listening to the difference between Norwegian & Swedish (very similar languages so that they can usually understand one another, but one's more sing-song like to the ear than the other). So, that champ that you interviewed is a Viking, Mauri, Irish, Scotsman (if not more). 😁👍
To all Australians' keep up the great work! Masie hope that you dance at Cowal Gathering in the Worlds. To the Pipe Bands I hope to see you also at the worlds Grade 1 pipers.
Being of Scottish/Viking heritage, I can personally attest to the Second Sight. Began when I was wee kid, I thought everyone could see spirits, the future, etc. It's just an extended, deeper sense.
@Viking Superpowers Usually images, some are more intense than the reality of our day to day world, but also knowing. The first I recall is when around 4 years old, seeing an old man wandering out of my parents bedroom. This happened quite a few times, and each morning he'd call my name. I could only see him and hear him call my name, I actually thought it was a real man. When asked my mother about this old man. Se asked me to describe him. So I gave the details, and that he wore a type of long coat with a rip in the pocket. I had never met my grandfather, my mother's father, as he had died long before I was born. My mother said that was her father, and that he was as a cabinetmaker and that was the coat he wore when she was little as he never wore overalls, just that old green coat with a tear in the left pocket. That memory is still very fresh in my memory, it was also the feeling as if I was coming out of a dream. Which I still often get when seeing, but it also feels very natural. Just like when you're listening to a piece of music, and suddenly the piece changes in a surprising way, your whole mind shifts with it, leaving you with a sort of wow factor. All throughout my life I've seen spirits, such as the time I told a lady her son was beside her and that he looked as if he was in a river in trouble. Shocked, she told me her son had died in a river when he was a teenager. I do also see relatives I have known. The most recent was a very interesting one. My father-in-law died a few years back and one night I was just sitting doing nothing much when he appeared before me. We had a little chat, and he said he'd appear to the girls that night in their dreams. I never mentioned this, but did write it down. Next morning, I asked our daughters what they had dreamed about, all 3 said Grandad. I showed them my book. My family pretty much accept it all, although my father just couldn't get his head around how it was possible. But long before I knew of physics or especially quantum physics, I always said we are connected, just as the whole of life is connected, and we are all different vibrations of energy but have an appearance of being separate and solid. Most friends are like my father, "how did you know that". But I've had all sorts of what are termed psychic experiences; from telepathy to foreseeing the future. Yes, I've made quite a bit of money from football and horse racing bets via knowing exactly who to back, although I take absolutely no interest in either sport. Which has resulted in having my accounts limited or closed by the bookies. When I hit my late teenage years I began seeing far more; knowing the type of person my wife would be, how many kids we'd have, etc. But like yourself, I've never really tried to develop this as I prefer the spontaneity. I do have knowings and visions almost daily though.
@@haraldtheyounger5504 sorry for taking a while to get back to you, what a fantastic life and ability to have! I also have had many many unusual experiences, but it sounds like your gift is more powerful than mine, especially when it comes to making money! That's a gift I'd like to have. Would you be interested in being interviewed for my channel? Are you on Facebook? I could friend you and then I can send you a message
@@vikingsuperpowers Hi David, I just view these faculties as normal and natural. Most are simply cut off due to their focus on the purely physical day to day pursuits. Thought is the great contributor to how our consciousness is shaped, and consciousness shapes how our awareness operates and flows. So I don't really view psychic perceptions as a gift as such, no more than eyesight, hearing, etc... just as an expansive form of sensing. I tend to keep fairly quiet about this side in general. When I was in my late teens I began to get pestered by people wanting to know their future, wanting to know which horse or team would win, wanting to communicate with their relatives who had passed on, etc. I quickly learned to keep a low profile. But I'm not on facebook or anything like that. I don't know if there is a way to message via RUclips, is there?
Enjoy your shows Bruce. I was very surprised to hear you use the term ping pong poms with that Scottish gentleman. During my visit to Australia, I heard the term poms, and I thought it was directed at the English. Perhaps anything from great Britain?
Loved this video. The Scottish/Highland Games that take place in my area is my favorite weekend of the year. Lucky to have one take place every year in my hometown of Kelso, Washington. Founded by a Scot from Kelso, Scotland. Who woulda thought.
Great video, I also used to play the pipes, when I was 10,11 & 12, but then my teacher passed away. He was an old world renowned piper, named Duncan McCaskill he was born & raised in Scotland he had so many trophies he had won over the years. He played all over the world. I thought the world of that old man, I hurt when he passed. I should've found another teacher but I just couldn't find one that I actually liked enough to continue learning from. I know it wasn't the best decision l ever made, but I was young & foolish...
Balquidder my mother now 90 camped there when she was a teenager. Her and her friend went for a pee behind the bushes and when they stood up a tourist bus had stopped and they were all out the bus getting photos. PS Balquidder was just a couple of fields called on the map the fields of Balquidder, wonder who Balquidder was.
Another brilliant video, Bruce! I love going to the Highland Games - our most recent was in early April in Ringwood (Victoria). Very much looking forward to seeing you on the 27th. I hope I’m brave enough to come and say halò! I’ve been to Perth in Scotland and loved it. Tioraidh an-dràsta.
Hey, Bruce. Wha wi yer no got yer kilt mannie. All the way from Perth and yer naw got yer kilt. I remember as a kid in New Zealand, once a year heading down to the park at the end of our street, for the local Highland games . Ma Da wasn't interested, and me Ma was Welsh (yer no tell anyone will yer), but I was enraptured, by the pipes, the dancing, the dress, and the fun. Hope yer had a great time, and thanks again fer coming to Cairns, we loved meeting you.
The McKays will be installing a new Lord Reay up in Sutherland this August. This Yank would love to go, but I’m a wee bit barren o’ coin- perhaps you can go in my stead, laddie? Lol.
A'reyt Bruce. A good watch, as usual. I was left wondering if you would walk 500 miles to see the Scottish band of a generation? Your pal Dave would not need to, as he would get a vision. Also, I wondered if I had seen so much tartan outside Scotland since Bay City Rollers?
Upcoming Live shows www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx
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My grandfather had been a pipe major of the black watch from the late thirties through the war and into the 50s, when he was also a piper for Queen Elizabeth at Holyrood and Balmoral. Upon leaving the forces he took up an offer to come to New Zealand to teach a pipe band that was just forming - Eitham Pipes and Drums (now amalgamated with Stratford and District Highland Pipe Band) - and also to teach piping judges how to judge.
My great uncle was a Black Watch piper, and my grandfather wrote pipe music. In fact, I've got a piece that the family has never heard, as the pipes are passed down to the eldest, and the last two haven't learned to play. I'm hoping to hear it before I pass on.
"Murphy's Pigs are not that band, but--"
That was hilarious !!!
As a lover of Highland games, I joined he society to bring the games to Dawson City, Yukon in the far north of Canada. I am not sure if we were the world's most northerly Highland games, but if not, we must have been close! The competitors who came loved our laid back way of doing things, and how spectators, and competitors were so close, making things very friendly. And, as the place with the largest Gold Rush in the world, we actually gave gold nuggets as prizes!
I'm doing live shows in Canada in 2024. Shows in Halifax, Annapolis, New Glasgow, Moncton, Montreal, Perth , Ottawa, Toronto, Fergus, Seaforth, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Most of the details are here www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx
@@ScotlandHistoryTours The closest only 3000km away! Cool!
This episode made me think of when I was a little girl growing up in St Paul, MN my Dad would take me to the highland festival I had so much fun I loved the dancing, wished I could do that, and the games on the field were great to watch, such strength. I get excited when I hear the sound of bagpipes cause you know there's a good time to be had. I wish they had the highland festival close where I live I'd take my family. ☮️♥️😀 From New Baltimore, Michigan, USA
Scottish Co. Fair is still going on. They got to big for McAllister and had to move out a way, but still going.
An absolute cracker of a video with some great interviews and the games looked packed with enthusiastic locals and participants! Thanks for these videos Bruce 🏴✊
You're welcome
...gotta make your way over here🇨🇦 sometime, Bruce. "Glengarry Highland Games" (North American Piping Championship) - where a wee town in Eastern Ontario swells to many thousands in early August every year.
Place🇨🇦 has been indelibly impacted by Scots - from inception til now - all over, everywhere😊👍
Maybe soon
@@ScotlandHistoryTours
🤔...then - there's Cape Breton😁🤙
Used to go to the Highland games in and around Pretoria as a boy. Very unScottish, blue skies and warm weather.
not wrong bloody LUSS highland games July always hottest day of year
Excellent video. Glad you enjoyed your day at Maclean. I didn't get to catch up with you, you spoke with my wife on the Friday at Ceilidh in street. I was born in St Andrews and brought up in Markinch. I cycled at many games over the years and that is where I met my wife. Been here for 34 years and been involved with the Scottish culture since. I brought the idea of the Tartan poles and we had 5 done for the Olympic torch coming through and we now have 200. I made the trophy presented to the dancer, the old one was full, I made a similar one for Pitlochry Games to replace a lost cup, which I was the inaugural winner off in 1991. I introduced the sports and made the equipment and from it's humble beginnings, has grown to quite a spectacle for the crowd. I also built the current stage, which we have been using now for 20 years. I'm the pork with fluro shirt who pulled up in white Landrover. I used to play the pipes. We have a great little community in Maclean and I love it. The weather was kind to us this year and the crowd and massed bands were amazing. Haste ye back.
I heard how passionate the Americans are of their heritage, even to the point of having them all things Scottish festy's every year somewhere in Carolina, it seems the Aussies are just as proud.
There is one at Kings Mountain every year and many others
I've also read of big Welsh traditions in Australia (someone mentioned it at the Welsh Viking channel, which incidentally I think may be responsible for the RUclips algorhythm recommending this one) so, yeah. 🙂
@@beth12svist Jimmy's channel? Yeah, I'm on there too.
@@DJJinxC2006 Yup!
We sure are and Maclean is the Scottish Town in Australia.
You found the beer tent! I'm sorry to say my family and I couldn't get there due to illness but it's good to see you had lots of fun.
It was a great day
Thank so much for this video. Well done Clan McLean for the gathering and games. Also glad to see you having so much fun while you`re over here. There is so much Scottish heritage in Australia. I`m happy to say my own Clan are represented by the Town, Armstrong in my State of Victoria.
Me Mam was a McLean (me Da well English). Home in Edinburgh now; have fun there Bruce.
'I've had dinner with the Loch Ness Monster' I'll have to remember that one.
😜
Bruce, you knocked it out of the park with this one. Couldn't be more happier for ya, I can feel the hairs on me back standin straight up. Inspirational, glè mhath!
Brilliant
My better half and I are musicians. She's an excellent violinist, and being of Irish descent took a liking to Fiddling. I'm a multi instrumentalist, playing guitar, piano, mandolin family, Tenor and 5 string banjo, bagpipes (both Great Highland and bellows blown Scottish smallpipes, penny whistles, flute, and bodhran). In 1991, we joined with a few other area musicians and formed a Irish/Scottish Tradition Band. For the next 16 years we performed at least once weekly, and around Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico at bars, pubs and occassional public events. Twice performing at the Pikes Peak Highland Games. Membership varied between 3 to 7 musicians over those years (I enjoyed it most when there was 6 to 7 members, as then I could move between instruments depending upon what the songs needed). In 2008, our other fiddler lost what remained of his vision, and chose to retire, as he had bad anxiety attacks after going totally blind. Three of us kept it going for another year, but the financial crisis ended a lot of the venues we performed at. Most of the owners saw a significant drop in their businesd and couldn't afford to pay us. The crisis really hit the local music as scene badly. We decided to hang it up after that.
My wife and I still play for friends and our own pleasure, but not anywhere else officially. Made enough money at it for quite a number of those year, that we were taxed on the income.
We had joined the Scottish Society of the Pikes Peak Region for quite a while, and helped put on the yearly Highland Games. A couple of years I ran the Children's Games. Aside from the usual events kids could participate in, I came up with a variation of hitting a Pináta filled with candy, while the kids were blindfolded and given a club I dubbed "Hack the Sassenach," that the kids loved to participate in. A hollow paper-mache, candy filled dummy painted to look like a British Recoat.
In the late 90s, the Society Chief, retired, and sadly, most voted for the New Chief, that I knew was a poor choice. I'd heard the man piss and moan about how he'd run the society enough at other times, that I still don't know why anyone voted. The Games had always been a break even venture, and he was of the opinion that catering towards children was why, and he didn't like having children involved at all. Short sighted, because unless we pass those Scottish Culture and Traditions on to the kids, we all lose out. Under his Chieftanship, the Society Games were cancelled, and membership dropped drastically. So badly, the Society all but ended.
There are two other yearly Games in Colorado, Estes Park, the bigger and more famous of the two. Undortunately, they've raised admission Fees, to a point, that the average income individual or family can't easily afford. I used to represent Clan MacKay, and the Clan Organization paid in for the Tent/Table at both Pike's Peak and Ling's Peak games. Estes Park games charged way beyond what the Clan reimbursed Representatives, which meant it had to come from the Representatives to make up the difference.
I'd love to attend a Games in Scotland, but it's beyond this retirees means.
What a great way to start the morning , looks like a lot of fun . 🇨🇦🍻
It was!
I spent a few years painting and carving Celtic knot work on pottery I made and sold it at our Scottish games here in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was so much fun and so heady a time just spending 2~3 day being around Celtic and just chatting with all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) folks who came to be Scot for the day. My favorite things were the Irish wolf hound clubs amazing dogs and the literally hair raising massed pipe bands. I knew I was Scottish and Irish and lots else(the longer your family has been in the U.S. the more mixed the pedigree gets!)
I just discovered you a couple of weeks ago and have been hunting up your videos on utube ever since. I finally get to hear Scottish history from a guy with terrific good humor and thought provoking content.it’s perfect for me to have a new binge worthy hobby to discover and fill in the blanks of my knowledge.I’m in a care center and my sole entertainment is the iPad my kids talked me into to spend my Covid stimulus money’s on. I just wish all history was taught by people like you. You make learning fun.😊😊😊😊
You're my favorite Scottish Dude.
Love your voice when you share your amazing History.
Happy & Safe Travels Bruce.
🇺🇸🗽❤
Thank you kindly
Brilliant, Bruce! Always makes me homesick when I see a Games on and hear the pipes! I'm a bit rusty the now, but I was playing side drum since I was a wain, and I competed the Drum Major circuit for nigh 20 years. When I came to university and, later, work in the States, bands and Games were the first things I looked for - and I found them aplenty! We're everywhere lads!!
Brilliant
What a fun video. Thanks Bruce.
It was a fun day out
Thanks for the "Murphy's Pigs " plug, Bruce!!!!
Our pleasure!
Great segment. The gentleman that spoke of second sight, my great x5 grandmother (Barbara MacPherson MacLeod) was interviewed about second sight on St Kilda for a book on it. Sir Walter Scott used the information for one of his books. Cool to hear someone else speak of it.
Very cool!
This is so awesome I want to go to the highland games in the city near me this year. I love the games and pipes.😊
☮️❤️🕯️🌹🦋
This is nuts! In the happiest way!!
Best day so far. What a great community.
Couldn't agree more!
I was on a flight and I saw you in that film about Richard III. So pleased to see a real celebrity!
Yeah man
"let me tell you a story!!!" (We apologise for the reaction, but so funny). Your live show was awesome!!!
So cool for my family and I to meet Zac and yourself last night. Thanks for your warmth and interest. (Tas is a seperate micro-continent about a billion years older than the rest of OZ, {source oz geographics you tube} hence the Palawa and more modern Tasmanians see ourselves as seperate). If Zac decides to spend more time here he will always find a warm welcome.
Ah, you're so kind
Good morning!
Hello there!
In High School Bruce Fummey I was the only Scotsman! to do the Bagpipes as my Music History, in my Music Class... and got an, A+ on it.
Yay
That warmed the cockles o' ma' heart!
"we're stewarts" and kung fu intructor to boot!!! this video really picks up as it gets going. well done once again, not that you need to hear it from me!! lol lookit all those stewart tartans in the parade too oh my
Hi, are you a Stewart as well? I'm the guy Bruce interviews at the start, it was surreal and wonderful to run into him there at the Games😀 It's very hard to see but I was wearing my very special Old Stewart tartan kilt ( specially woven for me in Scotland to the original Wilsons of Bannockburn hues) and also hand sewn to the very old style ( 4yd box pleated).
We Stuart, so very lucky to have a lot of choice of tartans 😅
@@vikingsuperpowers ehhh no Im an American mutt. My mom was Spalding, but it was Kennedy Spalding Lawless and Stewarts-Stuarts. My English preferring dad who was also a mutt and not even that english was not having any of that and my Scots Irish grandpa was a mute since ww2 so now that they're all gone it's mostly just a fever! But I have a stewart tartan it's more of a 3 meter blanket I wrap myself in, when I wear it I look, um, well, like Im learning or perhaps just stolen it from someone's christmas things. Yours and your whole towns is much more official and true.
@@fayelawless2625thanks for the great story😊! We are all mutts arent we! Being Scots is definitely romantic though. Cheers!
"Murphy's pigs are not that band"
Damn Bruce, that was cold
🤣🤣🤣
Thanks so much, Bruce, for posting this! We do have games on occasion near me in Dunedin, FL, but they are nothing like the ones I used to see in Scotland with family. We are Stewarts of Appin, and there don't seem to be many of us in the US that I've found. I used the hunting version of our tartan to choose colors for my kitchen remodel, and the family really liked having that reminder of our history. Grandpa wrote pipe music, presumably in part for his brother, a Black Watch piper. Sadly, I've never heard any of his pieces played. Hopefully I can one day find someone to play one!
James~ “..I’ve got the second sight..”
Bruce~ “Dae yi f#€k”
Loved that he still used some Scottish words
🤣
I'll always remember the look on my late dad's face when I was a kid and we were zooming along on a country road about to turn a corner. No signs or previous hints-
" Slow down- Deer!" 🦌🦌🦌( no, NOT slow down Dear!😁)
Although also predominantly a Celt, Dad was very scientifically minded, but had the sense to believe implicitly in his Scottish ancestored wife, so slammed down the brakes as safely as possible. As we lurched to a halt , about 50 large deer stampeded from the forest around the blind corner.
Ashen faced he said ' How the $@#^% did you know that? '.🤔 Mum shrugged 🤷♀️and said she could just visualize them beforehand.
I have 'lucid dreaming' and 'lucid day dreaming' image projection too sometimes which I find hard to explain. It's not 'on tap' though.
As they say the clairvoyant's meeting has been 'cancelled due to foreseen circumstances!' !
I smell bush fires* from so far away noone believes me until they too smell smoke half an hour later. Plus in wilderness I can tell when I've been spotted by an animal or person. I just know.
* Bit like 'Radar' hearing the helicopters in M*A*S*H but with smell.
M&D visited Scotland early this 21st century as well as Shetland etc.
I have zero Scottish ancestry, so watching this video feels a bit strange. It feels a lot less strange when I remember my own Moravian Wallachian ancestry and how I love going to Liptál (the village my grandfather lived in once) to visit their folklore festival... 😊 And much like several of these people, I have the surname to go with the ancestry...
It does look like a fun day out.
I enjoy the bagpipes and drum's because I've always thought the tunes were leading me back to my ancestors, maybe they are. My dad told me that his dad could find water in his property with dowsing with the tool's like stick's and he also said it was called witching for water. My dad also had a gift, he could predict my little sisters children's birth it was uncanny the way that he did it, I can tell you exactly everyone of my nieces and nephews birth, because he would start with my sister I'll bring you a sandwich while in the hospital, each one except for her oldest son they were born on a holiday or near one. They had a fuss about no they're not,🙄😜🤯😁🤔 guess whom got the sandwich while in the hospital she did it was more of a tease but he nailed each birth correctly.
The Sight.
@Viking Superpowers You're welcome.
@Viking Superpowers lucky to say the least.
I had the same thing with my son I live in brittany France and my boy at 9 years old said he wanted to play the pipes luckily we have a bagadoo local 15 years later he's still playing
Brilliant
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I’d love to get a chance to experience the McLean festival. It looks like a grand time.
It was!
I so enjoyed your video, as usual. Most entertaining.
I'm delighted
Ready for your story.
Great video, once again, loved this visit to such a Scottish town in Australia.
I loved it too
Loved this Bruce. So many happy memories of the many games I went to as a youngster before I moved away from Scotland. I did go to the games in Nova Scotia one year, very strange all these kilties not speaking in a Scots accent. It was great just the same.
Aye it takes a wee bit of getting used to
Should come to the Armadale Highland Gathering in Perth Western Australia !
Aye, thank you so much Bruce...and to all those you spoke with, truely exhilerating!
A bit of training needed on the caber Bruce?
These global highland gatherings are really fascinating.
We have the The 2023 Peak District Highland Games in August if you fancy another go at the caber
Oh your enthusiasm was captivating Bruce. Thanks again for another great video. 😊
My pleasure! Genuinely
Great show Friday night, totally enjoyed it.
It was my favourite show on the tour so far
❤ You just have to do a visit to Brigadoon at Bundanoon. Sensational.
I remember being on holiday on the Isle of Skye (as a kid) and the Highland games were on there and they asked children from the crowd to participate in the running events etc. I got a silver medal running in my Hiking boots XD
Yay
For sure, the hat, Bruce! How on earth can those Scots stand all that sun? It hurts my eyes just to look at it!
😂😂
Well now you HAVE to come visit the most Scottish town in Canada - Antigonish! We have the oldest Highland Games outside of Scotland and it’s a big county-wide event in July. You’d love it!
I'm doing live shows in Canada in 2024. Shows in Halifax, Annapolis, New Glasgow, Moncton, Montreal, Perth , Ottawa, Toronto, Fergus, Seaforth, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Most of the details are here www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx
love Bruce's enthusiasm makes his presentations very enjoyable
Enormous fun watching this. Thanks!
Glad to hear it!
If ye get the chance you should check out the Fergus Highland games in Fegus Ontario!
I wish I grew up in Australia.
Be you
What an awesome gathering. Another one on the list to visit and enjoy
Defo
Good, its Scotland with sunshine, love it beer tent then the bowling club. Could be any town in a Scotland. Good one Bruce. Enjoy the test of your time down under.
Thanks 👍
Hey Bruce, love your channel, I've been watching it for years. I would have loved to say hi at the Maclean games, but had to leave early with the family. Keep up the good work though. Haste ye back.
Next time!
Good one
What a truly wonderful walk around the Pearth way's 🚶
Loved this video buddy pure class
Glad you enjoyed it
I’m really loving these Australian episodes. The moment you see gum trees you know your in Australia. I grew up playing bagpipes in Far North Queensland and I knew of the Maclean gathering. Great to see the event on your channel.
T'was a great day out
Thanks, this is a great video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Love going to the Highland games! When my son first started competing in the athletics, I made him his competition kilt, pleated to the sett, by hand. I always love seeing the massed bands, the reenactments, the vendors and of course the food!
You looked like you were having a wonderful time filled with joy. It was a pleasure to watch.
A pleasure to do
And a bonnie time was had by all ...😀
Dane, Scot and Maroi, please tell me his wife isn't from the highlands of Nepal 😂 a super warrior is born!
😅
Great show.
Wish you would come to the highland games in western North Carolina or east Tennessee(mostly Scot-Irish-son in law is a local Blount Co TN McCall-shortened from ?I forget).
My maternal GM was a Kennedy(eastern NC) descended from the Kennedys of Culzean Castle, Ayrshire. (I'm 3/4 English I think-saw a couple of your DNA shows-so you & I are a lot English(sorry) but you've got the Scots accent, I don't).
Scot descendants are all over the place--but in America that's all ancient history--everyone's assimilated.
Please visit the south eastern US.
I hope you had a chance to see Roddy MacLeod play that evening. One of the top pipers worldwide. Siubhal sabhilte!
My home town! I'm so disappointed I was away while you visited! :(
Next time
A fantastic video! Your enthusiasm is so infectious that you make everyone around you happy. 😊 And I like your hat!
Aye ma Aussie hat
What a wonderful gathering and, as usual, a fascinating video. Thank you, Bruce! Now I want to go HERE, too.
You should!
Absolutely delightful video Bruce! Someday I hope to get to go to a Highland games event. I did complete in woodsman competition at college. No tree carrying, just chopping them down☺️. Stay awesome!!❤️🏴
i hit like before even watching, just love your content!!!
excellent! i am beginning my piping journey and recently joined the local pipe band. The great highland bagpipe sound resonates in my soul, always has.
My area is going to have a Highland games in a few months.
Yay
Cool video!
😎👍
Oh, yesterday I learned that the Scots came from Ireland* (I heard that back in the day Ireland was being called Greater Scotia when Scotland was being called Lesser Scotia - which makes me wonder when 'just a skosh' became a 'wee dunkin' - & this helps explain why I'm always getting my Mc's & Mac's mixed 🤪). For this reason all spoke Gaelic at the time.
Listening to the differences in speech/accents between Scottish & Irish I find is a lot like listening to the difference between Norwegian & Swedish (very similar languages so that they can usually understand one another, but one's more sing-song like to the ear than the other).
So, that champ that you interviewed is a Viking, Mauri, Irish, Scotsman (if not more).
😁👍
To all Australians' keep up the great work! Masie hope that you dance at Cowal Gathering in the Worlds. To the Pipe Bands I hope to see you also at the worlds Grade 1 pipers.
Being of Scottish/Viking heritage, I can personally attest to the Second Sight. Began when I was wee kid, I thought everyone could see spirits, the future, etc. It's just an extended, deeper sense.
@Viking Superpowers Any questions, fire away.
@Viking Superpowers Usually images, some are more intense than the reality of our day to day world, but also knowing.
The first I recall is when around 4 years old, seeing an old man wandering out of my parents bedroom. This happened quite a few times, and each morning he'd call my name. I could only see him and hear him call my name, I actually thought it was a real man. When asked my mother about this old man. Se asked me to describe him. So I gave the details, and that he wore a type of long coat with a rip in the pocket. I had never met my grandfather, my mother's father, as he had died long before I was born. My mother said that was her father, and that he was as a cabinetmaker and that was the coat he wore when she was little as he never wore overalls, just that old green coat with a tear in the left pocket.
That memory is still very fresh in my memory, it was also the feeling as if I was coming out of a dream. Which I still often get when seeing, but it also feels very natural. Just like when you're listening to a piece of music, and suddenly the piece changes in a surprising way, your whole mind shifts with it, leaving you with a sort of wow factor.
All throughout my life I've seen spirits, such as the time I told a lady her son was beside her and that he looked as if he was in a river in trouble. Shocked, she told me her son had died in a river when he was a teenager. I do also see relatives I have known. The most recent was a very interesting one. My father-in-law died a few years back and one night I was just sitting doing nothing much when he appeared before me. We had a little chat, and he said he'd appear to the girls that night in their dreams. I never mentioned this, but did write it down. Next morning, I asked our daughters what they had dreamed about, all 3 said Grandad. I showed them my book.
My family pretty much accept it all, although my father just couldn't get his head around how it was possible. But long before I knew of physics or especially quantum physics, I always said we are connected, just as the whole of life is connected, and we are all different vibrations of energy but have an appearance of being separate and solid. Most friends are like my father, "how did you know that".
But I've had all sorts of what are termed psychic experiences; from telepathy to foreseeing the future. Yes, I've made quite a bit of money from football and horse racing bets via knowing exactly who to back, although I take absolutely no interest in either sport. Which has resulted in having my accounts limited or closed by the bookies.
When I hit my late teenage years I began seeing far more; knowing the type of person my wife would be, how many kids we'd have, etc. But like yourself, I've never really tried to develop this as I prefer the spontaneity. I do have knowings and visions almost daily though.
@@haraldtheyounger5504 sorry for taking a while to get back to you, what a fantastic life and ability to have! I also have had many many unusual experiences, but it sounds like your gift is more powerful than mine, especially when it comes to making money! That's a gift I'd like to have. Would you be interested in being interviewed for my channel? Are you on Facebook? I could friend you and then I can send you a message
@@vikingsuperpowers Hi David, I just view these faculties as normal and natural. Most are simply cut off due to their focus on the purely physical day to day pursuits. Thought is the great contributor to how our consciousness is shaped, and consciousness shapes how our awareness operates and flows. So I don't really view psychic perceptions as a gift as such, no more than eyesight, hearing, etc... just as an expansive form of sensing.
I tend to keep fairly quiet about this side in general. When I was in my late teens I began to get pestered by people wanting to know their future, wanting to know which horse or team would win, wanting to communicate with their relatives who had passed on, etc. I quickly learned to keep a low profile. But I'm not on facebook or anything like that. I don't know if there is a way to message via RUclips, is there?
Enjoy your shows Bruce. I was very surprised to hear you use the term ping pong poms with that Scottish gentleman. During my visit to Australia, I heard the term poms, and I thought it was directed at the English. Perhaps anything from great Britain?
I really hope you had as good a time as it looked. Great to see you again Bruce.
I did!
@@ScotlandHistoryToursDo you know how to play the pipes? Have you tried? The closest I got was the time I stepped on my cat.
Hi Bruce. I'm still waiting for a posting about Henry Sinclair the Scot that made it to the new world a hundred years before Colombus.
Maybe one day
Loved this video. The Scottish/Highland Games that take place in my area is my favorite weekend of the year. Lucky to have one take place every year in my hometown of Kelso, Washington. Founded by a Scot from Kelso, Scotland. Who woulda thought.
Very cool!
Jockity Jockness... Lovin that!
😜
Thank you.
You're welcome!
My eighth grade teacher was piper and marched in a band in Kearney, NJ. If you don’t know Kearney is a big Scots-Irish town.
Great video, I also used to play the pipes, when I was 10,11 & 12, but then my teacher passed away. He was an old world renowned piper, named Duncan McCaskill he was born & raised in Scotland he had so many trophies he had won over the years. He played all over the world. I thought the world of that old man, I hurt when he passed. I should've found another teacher but I just couldn't find one that I actually liked enough to continue learning from. I know it wasn't the best decision l ever made, but I was young & foolish...
😪
What lovely people.
Indeed
Damn your close brother, enjoy you adventures!
It's grand
I'm a Renwick. my relatives are from Hawick in the Borders. Some good rugby players
Interesting video, Bruce, I greatly enjoyed it.
Glad to hear it
Balquidder my mother now 90 camped there when she was a teenager. Her and her friend went for a pee behind the bushes and when they stood up a tourist bus had stopped and they were all out the bus getting photos.
PS Balquidder was just a couple of fields called on the map the fields of Balquidder, wonder who Balquidder was.
😜
I love it !
I saw you in the movie!!! About Richard 3, brilliant!!! Loved it
Yeah man
Another brilliant video, Bruce! I love going to the Highland Games - our most recent was in early April in Ringwood (Victoria). Very much looking forward to seeing you on the 27th. I hope I’m brave enough to come and say halò! I’ve been to Perth in Scotland and loved it. Tioraidh an-dràsta.
🤣Aye, I'm one scary dude
Hey, Bruce. Wha wi yer no got yer kilt mannie. All the way from Perth and yer naw got yer kilt. I remember as a kid in New Zealand, once a year heading down to the park at the end of our street, for the local Highland games . Ma Da wasn't interested, and me Ma was Welsh (yer no tell anyone will yer), but I was enraptured, by the pipes, the dancing, the dress, and the fun. Hope yer had a great time, and thanks again fer coming to Cairns, we loved meeting you.
The McKays will be installing a new Lord Reay up in Sutherland this August. This Yank would love to go, but I’m a wee bit barren o’ coin- perhaps you can go in my stead, laddie? Lol.
It's not outwith the realms of possibility
This guy on Scotland History Tours reminds me of Lars Erickssong from Eurovision, but way more silky smooth.
A'reyt Bruce. A good watch, as usual. I was left wondering if you would walk 500 miles to see the Scottish band of a generation? Your pal Dave would not need to, as he would get a vision. Also, I wondered if I had seen so much tartan outside Scotland since Bay City Rollers?
😅😅😅
We have a Scottish Co. Fair in Minnesota like they have where you are now.