Heritage

Illustrious pipers

Silvia Muras

— 3 min read
Illustrious pipers
Photo taken before 1908. View of the stone bridge at Inveran looking at the hotel. Between 1914 and 1949 when the building burned down, the hotel was a piping mecca. © University of Aberdeen

Malcolm Macpherson, Calum Pìobaire


Calum MacPherson (1828-1898), father of Angus Macpherson, was one of the most famous pipers of the 19th century. He was born in Raasay to a family with a musical lineage dating back to the MacCrimmons of Boreraig, the hereditary pipers of MacLeod of Dunvegan. He became one of the most successful competitive pipers and teachers of his generation. Like his father before him, Calum Pìobaire was in the service of the Macpherson clan chief at Cluny Castle near Laggan for a number of years and from his base at Catlodge he would walk to various competitions and teach ceòl mòr, the classical music of the Great Highland Bagpipe, to his many pupils who came from far and wide.

Inveran Hotel owner and a fatherly figure to the piping world, Angus MacPherson. © Electric Scotland

Angus Macpherson


Angus Macpherson (1877-1976) was one of the five sons of Malcolm Macpherson. In 1898, aged 21, he became piper to Andrew Carnegie at Skibo Castle and in 1914, seven years after leaving Skibo, he became the tenant of the hotel at Inveran on the banks of the River Shin. For over 80 years, he attended Highland games and gatherings, first as a competitor (winning the highest honours), and later as a judge for piping and dancing. He published his memoirs A Highlander looks back in 1965 and later he received the MBE for his services to piping. He died on the 3rd of May 1976, two months short of his 99th birthday.



Malcolm Macpherson


Malcolm Macpherson (died 1966) was the son of Angus MacPherson. He was acknowledged as the world’s greatest exponent of the piobaireachd. Dr Roderick Ross published Binneas is Boreraig in 1959, an acclaimed six-volume work on the piping of Malcolm Macpherson. He tape recorded Malcolm playing 112 tunes and transferred what he heard to the page, showing tunes precisely as they were played. He is buried in Laggan, next to his grandfather Calum Pìobaire. 


Black Will MacDonald

(1913-1984) His father was a shepherd at Achinduich and when he died Will was taken in by Jesse Mackenzie. He was taught piping by Angus MacPherson and his son Malcolm. Black Will, aged 13, appears in a photo of the early Ardgay-Bonar Pipe band in 1926. In 1939 Will joined up with the 5th Seaforths. As a young man he was known for his love of dancing and he was an accomplished highland dancer. After the war, he was offered a job as a piper to a big house but he turned it down because his foster father Jesse was old, ill and needed help. As recounted by By Niall Graham-Campbell, he used to play the fiddle in Invershin Hotel, and having a good capacity for whisky “as the evening progressed his arm would droop so that it rested against his chest but the music still seemed to flow out of him just as easily.” He is buried at Inveran.

Talents for the future

Our cover features local piper Angus Smith, aged 12, from Ardgay. He started playing the pipes aged 8 and a year later he joined the Ardross Pipe Band, where he played at the Dornoch Show and for the cruise ships leaving Invergordon. Since then he has played at ceilidhs in Culrain, for the British Royal Legion, at weddings... He will be playing with the Ardross Pipe Band in Alness on Hogmanay. We wish him every success!

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