Set of bellows-blown Lowland bagpipes

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Set of Lowland bagpipes, bellows-blown, with two tenor drones and a bass drone mounted in a single stock. This instrument, like many of its period, has no maker's name on it, but would have been made by a turner or pipe maker in one of the Lowland burghs in the late 18th or early 19th century.

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

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• Online ID: 000-000-579-729-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: The Bagpipe Collection
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  H.LT 53
• Date: 18th century (period when instrument became associated with town pipers)
  Late 18th - early 19th century (date of manufacture)
  
• Material: Lowland bagpipes
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Lowland bagpipes
  
• Subject:
• Who: The Museum of Piping, Glasgow (place of display)
  
• Where: Scotland (place of manufacture)
  
• Event:
• Description: Set of Lowland bagpipes with three drones in a single stock.
  
• References:
  • Baines, Anthony,. Bagpipes. Occasional Paper on Technology 9, Oxford University Press, 1973. 
• Translations:
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