Còisir Lunnainn: The World's Oldest Gaelic Choir Based in London

London, United Kingdom Aug 22, 2026 ALN: Fergus Reoch readily admits he could talk for Scotland about it.

When you find out he's the president and deputy conductor of the world's oldest Gaelic choir, his pride and enthusiasm makes sense.

What surprises most people is that the choir he's been a member of for around 13 years isn't based in Scotland.

For those of you who don't speak Gaelic, Còisir Lunnainn hails from London, gathering each week in Covent Garden for rehearsals.

"We love to tell anyone who is listening that we are the oldest Gaelic choir that is still continuing in the world," says Fergus, 41, who is a curatorial consultant in the museum industry.

"We are the only Gaelic choir in England.

Còisir Lunnainn is the world's oldest Gaelic choir. Seen here at last year's Royal National Mod in Fort William. (Image: Còisir Lunnainn)

"We can trace our roots back to the establishment of Còisir Chiùil Ghàidhlig Lunnainn in 1891.

"It was the same year An Comunn Gàidhealach was founded in Oban, and a year before the first Royal National Mòd and establishment of Scotland’s oldest Gaelic choir, Còisir Ghàidhlig an Òbain (Oban Gaelic Choir), in 1892."

In the late 1880s, the Gaelic Society of London (Comunn Gàidhlig Lunnainn) launched Gaelic classes.

William Gillies was invited to be the examiner of the classes in 1890/91.

"He examined the classes and he said, 'this is going brilliantly, we need to get these people singing, we need a choir,'" says Fergus.

"Interestingly his great granddaughter now sings with Lothian.

Fergus Reoch, president of London Gaelic Choir. (Image: London Gaelic Choir)

"London like Glasgow hoovers up people from everywhere. It's a place where you will find anything if you look for it.

"There were enough Gaels in London for there to be a Gaelic society. So a lot of people involved in those classes were people who had Gaelic speaking parents or grandparents but they were Londoners.

"We get surprise from people in Scotland that there is a Gaelic choir in London. We get surprise from Gaels and Gaelic speakers that there are people in London doing Gaelic things and we get surprise from people in London that there is Gaelic."

Fergus is originally from Glasgow but moved to London some 20 years ago.

"I came to Gaelic in my twenties," he says. "My grandmother was a speaker but I didn't grow up with it.

"She was actually born in Dumbarton and she had it from her granny, who lived in Fife but was from Wester Ross. She lost it as a child because going to school you weren't allowed to speak it.

"I did my degree in Arabic and Armenian and I was sat there at the age of 25 thinking, I can speak Arabic and Armenian but I can't speak my granny's own tongue.

"I joined classes here in London in 2010 and those were the descendants of the classes that were started in the 1890s.

"They are the oldest continuous Gaelic learning classes in the world.

"The choir has a mixture of native speakers and very developed learners down to people who can parrot out the words that we sing."

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After the First World War in 1914 celebrated Gaelic singer and gold medalist Magrat Duncan was invited to conduct but because of touring commitments could not accept and instead conducted the ladies’ choir and sang with the main choir.

The choir's first appearance at the Royal National Mòd came in 1925, in Greenock, with J.S. MacIntyre conducting the main choir and Margrat Duncan conducting the ladies’ choir.

London Gaelic Choir pictured in 1925 (Image: London Gaelic Choir)

 “It was already quite a big distance between London and most places and if it's the 1890s then it's a lot further" says Fergus, reflecting on why the choir didn't compete before.

"We did not do particularly well [ at the first Mod] and we have kept that high tradition going and continued not to do very well.

"We are very nice, so we go with that."

During the 1950’s the choir sang on the soundtracks of a host of films including Whisky Galore and Silver Darlings.

Whisky Galore was released in 1949 (Image: Martini Archive)

Former member Margrat McIsaac Duncan was one of the foremost exponents of Hebridean, Gaelic and Scottish songs of her time.

Fergus says: "In 2025, to celebrate 100 years since Còisir Lunnainn’s first Mòd and to show our respect for this remarkable member of our choral family, we had Margrat’s gravestone in Twickenham Cemetery restored."

The choir funded a restoration project at the grave of former member Margrat Duncan. (Image: London Gaelic Choir)

After her death, the Glasgow Islay Association opened a memorial fund to perpetuate her legacy and commemorate her long and outstanding services to Gaelic music.

This resulted in the Margrat Duncan Memorial Trophy, for which Còisir Lunnainn competes alongside other area choirs today.

In the mid 1990s, under the baton of Alan Munro, the choir won the Margrat Duncan competition several times.

Reflecting on other successes he says: "In 2009, Còisir Lunnainn came either 2nd or 3rd in the Lovatt & Tullibardine Competition.

"It depends who you ask.

"I think we may have tied second equal and became third on tie-breaker or reassessment of the points, but by all accounts it was a stellar performance."

The choir's logo features an outline of the Thames. (Image: Còisir Lunnainn)

When Fergus joined the choir in 2013 it was not doing well on numbers, but a small band of stalwarts (often only 5 or 6) continued to turn up every week.

Slowly, they tried to reach out to interested people to grow the choir.

In 2016, after the choir's conductor Angus Nicol died Fergus took over the role.

He said: "I found myself in the position of having enough musical literacy and enough Gaelic to be able to make it happen.

"I think of it as inheriting a choir somewhat by accident.

"In 2018, we sent a quartet to the Mòd in Dunoon (Angelique MacDonald, Kirsty O’Connor, Fergus Reoch, Iain Short) to take part in the Quartets competition and to remind everyone else that we were still going."

In 2019, a decade after their last Mòd appearance, the choir returned as a full choir to the festival in Glasgow.

The following year, when Covid struck the choir went completely online.

"Part of that is probably being in London but we are all lawyers and consultants and we went online within seconds of it happening," says Fergus.