Glenbuchat Heritage

17 Alex Walker Addendum 1 Lonach 1857


Click for Alexander Walker Introduction

The above picture shows Alexander Walker in the centre in full Lonach Highland regalia before the Lonach games of 1857 at Newe Castle with Sit Charles Forbes second right

Alexander’s departure from Strathdon is recorded in Ron Windram’s ‘Land of Lonach’ from a letter written some years later:

“There are still plenty of bag-pipers in the north, l believe - many of them very good. But did you ever hear Andrew Cant? When the mood was on him he was more than mortal. The night he piped Walker, the gardener, away from Castle Newe I shall never forget. It was a dark and stormy night and a very doubtful outlook for the emigrant (he was going to America), and Cant let himself out, and put the whole of the dismal situation into ”Lochaber No More” in such a masterly manner that, to this day, after a lapse of nearly sixty years, l think l can remember many of the fancy touches which he improvised to embellish the old tune. That was piping. l wonder what became of Andrew? The last l heard of him was at Haddo House over forty years ago. l suppose by this time he has joined the heavenly choir.”