Gareth Mitchelson Championships are held at the Cowal Gathering in Dunoon on the last Saturday in August each year. Whilst still at school Mitchelson was a member of the world-renowned British Caledonian Airways pipes and dance corps, performing at Scottish events all over the world. In 1985 Gareth and Deryck Mitchelson commissioned new work and music for inclusion in Glasgow's Mayfest dance festival and formalised this with the formation of the CelticSpirit Dance Company as a limited liability company. Other notable performances have included participation in many folk festivals and fiddlers' rallys, in the Capitol Theatre and His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen,
MV Cowal spent her last five years. From 1974 to 1977, she assisted with a contract to service McAlpine's oil platform construction yard at Ardyne. After this ended, she retired from the Rothesay service on 20 May 1977 and was laid up at Greenock's East India Harbour from early June 1977. MV Cowal MV "Cowal" was a hoist-loading vehicle ferry introduced by Caledonian Steam Packet Company in 1954. She spent the whole of her 24 years with Calmac on the Upper Clyde crossings. MV "Cowal" was the second of a trio of vehicle vessels ordered in 1951 to modernise the Clyde fleet.