A schoolboy hailed as ”one of the most promising piping prospects to come out of Perthshire in the last 20 years” has swept the board at an international competition.
Harry McLachlan took four first-place positions in the inaugural World Online Piping and Drumming Championship.
The 13-year-old, who has been playing the bagpipes since before his eighth birthday, beat pipers from 19 countries.
The competition involved Harry, who was just 12 at the time he entered, uploading videos of him playing to YouTube and submitting them to the bagpipelessons.com website.
He took first place in the grade three March, Strathspey and Reel, Jig and Piobaireachd, as well as wining the Alasdair Gillies Memorial Challenge for the 12-and-under category.
His tutors now expect him to move up to grade two if he enters the competition again.
The second-year Breadalbane Academy pupil decided to have a go at the competition after leaders at the Vale of Atholl pipe band suggested it to him.
He was allowed to film his videos in the gallery of the Aberfeldy Watermill, where his mum Linda works, and had to play each piece in a single take.
Harry said: ”It was like a normal competition, where you have to play right through without stopping, but because it was filmed you could have as many goes as you wanted.”
Harry, who also plays in the National Youth Pipe Band, said he started playing the pipes to be like his friends and that his ambition was to be a world-class piper.
”A few of my friends started playing and I thought I would give it a go and when they all stopped I kept going. I love to do it. I want to keep on going and one day be at the top.
”I’d love to win the Glenfiddich Championships, which is basically the world championship for solo pipers, but I have a lot of work to do before consider that,” he said.
The teen, who practices for up to six hours every week, thought he might come away with a prize but did not expect to win so many awards.
He said: ”I would have hoped that I would have done well but I didn’t think I’d done as well as I did because I didn’t know how many were entering the competition. I could have come away with nothing.
”I was stunned to win. It feels great to know that you are the best in that category and, because it was a world-wide, one of the best in the world.”
Harry lives with his mum Linda, dad Crawford and 16-year-old sister Lorna, who plays side drum in the Vale of Atholl pipe band.
Linda said Harry’s talent had become clear in the early years of his playing when he quickly mastered Mairi’s Wedding in order to play it at her brother’s nuptials.
She added the entire family was ”incredibly proud” of Harry’s achievement.
His tutor Stuart Letford, who plays alongside Harry in the Vale of Atholl pipe band, said he expects him to go far.
He said: ”He went in for the grade three and swept the board, so if he goes in again he’ll go up a grade. He’s a good wee player, he practises all the time.
”I don’t teach a lot of kids privately but Harry has the right attitude. Just about every competition he goes in for, he’s in the prizes.
”The world is his oyster. His potential is huge if he keeps on going the way he’s going.”