AN ASPIRING Alva piper has been named Young Global Piper of the Year 2020 following an online competition.

The town's talented Lewis Maxwell won the 2020 Shepherd Challenge for Young Global Piper of the Year, organised online by the Governor Macquarie Memorial Pipe Band in Australia.

The 14-year-old wowed the five judges, beat off competition from entrants from Down Under, Hong Kong, the USA, as well as another Scottish piper in Fraser Hamilton who came third.

Proud mum Caryl Maxwell told the Advertiser: "We are really buzzing for him.

"We could not be prouder, Lewis has been competing seriously for a couple of years in solo piping and he is usually always on the prize list."

The talented young man, who is a regular in the first rank at Stirling & District Schools Pipe Band, started out by taking lessons from his dad Douglas at the age of just six.

Going from strength to strength has been taking lessons not just his school more recently, but also from Callum Beaumont at Dollar Academy.

During the past months, the Alva Academy pupil was seen busking in Stirling as part of the school's annual Macmillan fundraiser, which could not host the usual grand coffee morning due to the pandemic.

Earlier, he was also out at Beechwood Park Care Home during lockdown, entertaining the residents by piping in the car park.

And the day after Lewis learnt he won the competition last week, he joined his musical peers from the academy at Menstrie House to bring a bit of Christmas magic (pictured).