Nine Pipers Withdrew After Morning Rain at the Hundred and Seventy First Pitlochry Highland Games

Arran Green won the overall piping championship at the 171st Pitlochry Highland Games at the Recreation Ground on Ferry Road in Perthshire on 12 September 2026, the closing fixture of the Scottish games season.

Nine pipers withdrew from the piobaireachd after rain early in the morning, though the day turned surprisingly dry and warm. Douglas Murray won that event with Lord Lovat's Lament, ahead of Hector Munro with the Blind Piper's Obstinacy and Green with the Battle of Auldearn No. 2. Edward Gaul won the march, strathspey and reel from Green and Ross Conner, while Murray also took the jigs and the six-eight march.

In the youth grades Cailean Acamovic won the under-fourteen march, strathspey and reel and Arthur McKay the under-fifteen to under-eighteen equivalent.

The heavy events ran through the day, from junior competitions at half past nine to the open heavies at half past twelve, with the championship tug of war in the afternoon and massed bands at about half past four. The programme covers the sixteen and 22 pound stone with a maximum sixteen foot run-up, the Scots hammer thrown without turning, a 28 pound weight for distance on an eighteen inch chain, a 56 pound weight over the bar, and the caber, which weighs roughly 150 pounds, stands about eighteen feet and is judged for straightness rather than distance.

Prize money doubles for any competitor who breaks a ground record. The oldest still standing is Brian Oldfield's 22 pound stone mark of 50 feet 2 inches, set in 1973. The pipe band parade was confined to the games field because of roadworks, with organisers hoping to restore the street parade in 2027.