Set of Lowland bagpipes with drones mounted in a common stock

Add to album

Set of Lowland bagpipes which belonged to a Peeblesshire family. The pipes are mounted with horn and bone and are bellows-blown. The drones, two tenors and a bass, are mounted in a common stock and are turned as in the Highland bagpipes.

The Lowland pipes, or Border bagpipe, was a distinctive instrument by the 18th century. It has a chanter and three drones - two tenors and a bass - and sounded and tuned as the Great Highland bagpipe but would generally not have produced such a strident and carrying sound.

A distinguishing characteristic was the mounting of the three drones in a common stock, and the use of bellows strapped under the arm to provide a supply of air. Such a bagpipe would sometimes be described as a 'cauld wind pipe', in contrast to the mouth-blown bagpipe in which the player's breath was hot and lurid. The lowland pipes were the instrument favoured by the Town or Burgh Piper of Lowland Scotland.

Record details

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-000-579-722-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: The Bagpipe Collection
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  H.LT 32
• Date:
• Material: Horn and bone
  Set of Lowland bagpipes
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Set of Lowland bagpipes
  
• Subject:
• Who: The Museum of Piping, Glasgow (place of display)
  
• Where: Scotland, Peeblesshire (place of use)
  
• Event:
• Description: Set of bellows-blown Lowland bagpipes mounted with horn and bone.
  
• References:
  • Baines, Anthony,. Bagpipes. Occasional Paper on Technology 9, Oxford University Press, 1973. 
• Translations:
• Related Records: