" Drummers at practice, Worlds, Glasgow 2002!"

Brief Background
Gortaclare became a pipe band in 1923 having previously been a flute band. The band began having no uniform. The early pipe majors were William Nixon, William Young, Tom Hamilton( Grandfather of Chamilton Clelland memorial ), Jack Gibson and Ernie Clarke. Gortaclare pipe band purchased its first full highland uniform in 1950. The Tartan being McKenzie of Seaforsth. The Bands first win was at the festival of Britian contest in Omagh 1952.

In 1954 Noel Clarke Became pipe major and continued until 2000.

In 1970 the band changed the tartan to Maclaine of Louchbuie. Under the direction of Noel Clarke, gortaclare went into competition in 1965 and won an All-Ireland title in grade 4 at Dublin in 1970. Good results continue to feature during the 70's and early 80's. The hard work resulted the band playing at grade 2 level.

In more recent times, personell has changed and the band returned to the lower grades still attending most competitions.

The present pipe major is Norman Cochrane and the band is becoming re-established, with grade 4B European and
Cowal Games titles under their belt in 2001.

PM, Norman Cochrane
Gortaclare's current pipe major is Norman Cochrane. A man with true experience in the highest levels of pipeband music, his wealth of talent surely brings new encouragement and more importantly prizes!

Since Autumn 2000, when Norman took over the band from the legendary Noel Clarke, he had no doubt that he had to work hard to live up to the stature of his predecessor.

Norman accepted this and tansformed the band into a prize winning champion band. So far under his management he has helped the band atain their first European Championship Victory at Ayr 2001. The year continued with gathering prizes at nearly every local contest and the band finished the year by winning the Cowal Games in their respective grade.

Images of the Times

Below are some of the many images of the band from as far back as 1930's. To view the images, doubleclick on the text links below!

       

 

 

* Noel Clarke, Pipe major for over 50 years.

 

Trevor Beattie 2002 -2003