For the past couple of years, Dad and I have enjoyed having our main holiday in the UK - airport hassle has just got intolerable!

This year, our main hotel was the Best Western Lochardil House Hotel, owned by Eileen Fraser and Graeme MacBean. It’s a lovely family-run hotel just outside Inverness, so we were able to drive right up to John O’Groats and the Isle of Skye with ease!

The night we arrived, after we’d had a meal in their excellent dining room, there was a traditional wedding party going on next door - with a typical band and everyone kitted out in their kilts - the men, that is! It was really exhilarating, just to stand and listen for a few minutes!

I vowed that, on our return, I would celebrate our lovely stay there with my own musical tribute to the hotel, and, more importantly, the people of Scotland and their lovely country itself.

I have linked a traditional Strathspey with a faster Reel, both from my own original material. There’s just a little real Scottish snippet during the last four bars!

While I haven’t tried to be exact, the use of pentatonic scales, the occasional drone, and some ornaments - to suggest the ’gracing’ of the pipes - hopefully recreates what we felt and heard on our first night there.

This particular version is essentially for Violin and Piano.

However, I have included an optional Violin 2 part, a String Bass part, and one for a Drum, as these often figure in the type of ceilidh band we first heard there.

An accordion could be added, and the piano part could be adapted accordingly - I have therefore chord symbols to the piano part to facilitate this, or indeed to be used on any chord-playing instrument.