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Balmoral
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PERSONAL PIPERS
Continuing a tradition going back to Queen Victoria's days and beyond, as a professional deerstalker and piper, it was a great honour for me to be asked by HM The Queen in 1989 to play for her as a personal piper at Balmoral Castle.
Many people know about "The Sovereign's Piper" or "Queen's Piper", (which has been an Army appointment since 1966), but few know that for many years there has been an additional piping presence of men who had other main occupations at Balmoral.
From mentions in Queen Victoria's Journals and still a tradition to the present day at Balmoral, these men tended to be mainly deerstalkers, gamekeepers or fishing ghillies. Probably the most well known of these, Bob Nicol, Bob Brown and Jimmy MacGregor went on to become Pipe Majors during WWII.
[The "Two Bobs" especially are very highly regarded in the piping world for their teaching of piobaireachd, the ancient classical music of the Highland bagpipe.]
But there were others. In the years following WWII there were 6 pipers plus The Sovereign's Piper marching round the Royal dinner table, all men who had other "day" jobs on Balmoral Estate. Most of these men would have done a hard day on the hill, maybe walking between 5 and 15 miles, before getting home to change their wet tweeds and travel more miles to play in the Castle that same night. Men such as Duncan MacNab Duncan in the 50's, Charlie Wright and Alec Ogilvie in the 60's and 70's to name but a few.
Interestingly, Bob Brown who went to Balmoral in 1926, lived for a long time (until his death in 1972) at Garbh-Allt Shiel in the Ballochbuie Forest of Balmoral where he was stalker/fishing ghillie. He was followed by the above mentioned Charlie Wright in the same position/house until 1983. In 1989 I myself arrived at Garbh-Allt Shiel to continue the tradition of stalker/ghillie/piper in that house, until leaving Royal Service in 1999.
SOVEREIGN'S PIPER
Since the concept of Piper to The Sovereign started with Angus MacKay in 1843, there have been 10 others consecutively; (this does not include "Honorary" pipers and assistant pipers etc.). The current, (2004), and 11th Sovereign's Piper is Pipe Major (PM) Jim Stout of The Highlanders.
During my 10 years at Balmoral I played along with three Sovereign's Pipers; the late PM Brian MacRae (Gordon Highlanders), PM Gordon Webster (Scots Guards) and PM Jim Motherwell (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders).
Our piping duties have been listed previously and were mostly during the evenings, however on the occasional (rare) absence of The Sovereign's Piper I would also assume his piping duties at Balmoral Castle. These included playing outside the Castle in the mornings and being Master of Ceremonies at the Ghillie's Ball.
My uniform was virtually identical to the Pipe Major's, being of Balmoral tartan which can only be worn by The Royal Family and their pipers. However my silver accoutrements were slightly different, being newly commissioned in 1990 whereas the Pipe Major's were handed down from Victorian days. He also wore his badges of rank and two eagle's feathers rather than one.
The Sovereign's Piper would travel with Her Majesty and play for her at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, and at Balmoral in Aberdeen-shire. Personally employed pipers such as myself would normally only play in the vicinity of Balmoral .
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