The Highland bagpipe

Hereditary in two senses—When they ceased—The Mac Crimmons—A traditional genealogy—A Mac Gregor tradition—The Mac Crimmon College—Dr. Johnson—College broken up—An Irish college—Its system—A Mac Crimmon’s escapades—Respect for the Mac Crimmons—The Rout of Moy—The last of the race—How they excelled—The Mac Arthurs—The Mac Intyres—The Mac Kays—The Rankins—The Campbells—The Mac Gregors.

The hereditary pipers were hereditary in at least two senses. They were hereditary because son followed father, generation after generation, in the service of one chief, no one disputing their claim to the succession. But they were also hereditary in the sense that their talents were not self-acquired. They came of a race of pipers, and piping to them was hereditary. Seven generations of pipers for ancestors and seven years of personal training were considered necessary to produce the true hereditary piper. It is this to which Neil Munro alludes when he says—“To the make of a piper go seven years of his own learning and seven generations before.”

The hereditary pipers were second only to the chiefs of the various clans, and their fame has come down through the years with wonderful persistence. The chiefs were proud of their pipers and treated them as gentlemen. The pipers, on their part, were proud of their chiefs, and would do anything for them. Hereditary pipers existed until the passing of the Heritable Jurisdiction Abolition Act of 1747, which, by abolishing clanship, made the possession of a retinue by a chief an offence against the civil law. The chiefs then deprived their pipers of the lands they had formerly held by virtue of their office, and by that act degraded them to the level of ordinary musicians. And, with the absence of a sure position, the enthusiasm for pipe music dwindled, succeeding generations failed to attain to the high level of their forebears, and the hereditary pipers were merged in the general race of Highland musicians.

The greatest of the hereditary pipers were

pipers to Mac Leod of Dunvegan. There is nothing to show how or where the race originated. Some traditions state that the first Mac Crimmon came from Cremona in Italy, and was named Donald. He settled in Glenelg, and had a son named Iain Odhar, who, about 1600, became the first piper to the family of Mac Leod. This traditional genealogical tree, supplied originally by a man who had seen the wife of him who, according to the tradition, was the last of the Mac Crimmon pipers to Mac Leod of Mac Leod, shows that a direct descent from this Iain Odhar was:—

Malcolm, married, with issue:—

 

1. John, who succeeded him as piper.

 

2. Donald (Roy), D.S.P.

 

3. Rachel, who married in Glendale.

 

4. A daughter who died unmarried.

John (Dubh) married first a Mac Askill, with issue:—

1.

Donald, D.S.P., a Captain in the Army.

2.

Peter, D.S.P., a Captain in the Army, and considered one of the strongest men of his day. Emigrated to Cape Coast Castle.

3.

Malcolm, married in Ardrossan, with several sons.

4.

Elizabeth, married a cooper of the name of Mac Kinnon, in Islay. Had two daughters—(a) Mary Ann, married Malcolm Mac Leod, Shipmaster, Lochmaddy, with issue; (b) Effie, married Chisholm, Tacksman, of Gairnish, South Uist, with issue.

5.

Janet, married a Ferguson, in America, with issue, an only daughter, who resided in Greenock.

6.

Flora, who married Mac Donald, Tacksman, of Pein-a-Daorir, South Uist, factor for South Uist.

7.

Marion, married, with issue.

8.

Catherine, married with issue.

John, married secondly Ann Campbell, with issue:—

9.

Duncan, married a Mac Queen, with issue—(a) John, who went to New Zealand; (b) Donald, who married a Mac Leod, went to America, and had a family.

10.

Peter, married Ann Mac Donald from Trotternish, with issue, one daughter. Married secondly Margaret Morrison, by whom he had three daughters.

11.

John, died unmarried, but left an illegitimate son named John, who married a daughter of Neil Mac Sween, mason, Roag.

12.

Euphemia, married Malcolm Nicholson, with issue—(a) Hector, died without issue; (b) John, married with issue; (c) Murdo, who married a daughter of James Wood; (d) John, married Janet, daughter of John Bàn Mac Leod, Lusta, with issue; (e) Donald, married a Mac Nab, with issue; (f) Catherine, unmarried; (g) Ann, married Murdo Mac Innes, Roag, without issue; (h) Marion, married Norman Mac Askill, tenant, Ullinish, with issue; (i) Effie, married Samuel Thorburn, Holmisdale, with issue.

According to this genealogy, which however does not profess to be complete, the line of hereditary Mac Crimmon pipers was very short indeed, consisting of only Iain Odhar, Malcolm, John, and John (Dubh). That this is not the complete line is undoubted, for we have historical proof that there were other Mac Crimmons pipers to Mac Leod. As a matter of fact, one of the family living in Alexandria, Dumbartonshire, as late as 1898, writes as follows:—

“My uncle, Donald Mac Crimmon, was the last piper of the Mac Crimmons that was in the Castle, and he died over fifty years ago. My father also, Norman Mac Crimmon, was a pibroch player, and was taught by Captain Mac Leod of Gesto, who is now dead fifty-four years. Both were born at Lowerkill, Glendale. My great grandfather, Donald Donn, was brother to Donald Bàn, who composed ‘Mac Crimmon’s Lament,’ and was with the Mac Leod Highlanders near Moy Hall, the residence of Lady Mac Intosh, reconnoitering Prince Charlie.”

Some stories—they are only stories—assert that the Mac Crimmons were originally Mac Gregors. The Mac Gregors, it is pointed out, had an academy for the teaching of pipe music in Lochaber many centuries ago, and the Mac Gregor music, such as the “Reel of Tulloch” (that this is a Mac Gregor tune is a matter of debate, however) is the merriest and also the saddest in the Highlands. Rob Roy’s deathbed tune is said to have simply been “We Return no More,” in other words, “Mac Crimmon’s Lament,” and his piper was himself a Mac Crimmon, who, under the mournful circumstances, recalled the traditional strain. There is certainly a great deal that is probable in this, but that is the most that can be said about it.

The best, and what, on the face of it, is the most reliable story of the Mac Crimmons is that given by Angus Mac Kay in his book of pipe music.^[14] It is beyond doubt that high musical talent as well as high moral principle and personal bravery descended from father to son during many generations in the family of the Mac Crimmons. They became so famous that pupils were sent to them from many parts of the Highlands, and one of the best certificates a piper could possess was his having studied under the Mac Crimmons. Finding the number of their pupils increasing daily, they at length opened a regular school or college on the farm of Boreraig, about eight miles south-west of Dunvegan Castle, but separated from it by Loch Follart. Here seven years’ study was prescribed for each scholar, regular lessons were given out, and certain periods were fixed on for receiving instruction. The tuition was carried on as systematically as in any of our northern schools, and the names of some of the caves and knolls in the vicinity still indicate the places where the scholars used to practise respectively the chanter, the small pipe and the large bagpipe, before playing in the presence of the master. This school was not entirely extinct in 1779, for Dr. Johnson, who was at Dunvegan in that year, alludes to it and says his dinner “was exhilarated by the bagpipes at Armadale and Dunvegan.” The school proper was the “ben” end of the dwelling-house, which seems to have been about seventy feet in length and two storeys in height. In actual practice, however, the room was little used. The “professors” preferred the open hillside, a small hollow near the house, or a cave in the neighbourhood, which came to be known as the Pipers’ Cave. Near the Pipers’ Cave is another known as the Pigeons’ Cave, which is about a mile in length. To it, tradition asserts, the daughters of the Mac Crimmons were wont to slip with a favourite set of pipes, for they too were musically inclined, and so proficient did some of them become, an ancient chronicler tells us, that they were able to superintend the class work in the absence of their fathers.

The speciality of the Mac Crimmons was the pibroch, and many students studied with them for years so as to become proficient in this one branch of pipe music—a branch which is, in the estimation of most pipers, far superior to reels and strathspeys. They held the farm of Boreraig rent free until the time came when all the hereditary pipers were either dispossessed of their lands or asked to pay rent for them. The proud Mac Crimmons declined to pay rent, broke up the college, and from that day ceased to exist as a family for the cultivation of pipe music. Their farm was afterwards let to eighteen different tenants, and drew over £100 a year in rent, so they must have been treated with considerable liberality by their chiefs.

No tradition exists, says Mac Kay, relating to the time when the Mac Crimmons became professional pipers to the Mac Leods, but neither is their trace of any others holding the office. The first of whom there is any account is Iain Odhar or Dun-coloured John, who lived about 1600, but it is evident from their compositions that the family must have been established long before that date. They were a minor sept, and they are supposed to have derived their name from the fact that the first performer studied at Cremona. After Iain Odhar came his son, Donull Mór or Big Donald, who became a great pibroch player, and getting into the good graces of Mac Leod, got special opportunities for learning. He was sent to a college in Ireland, which is said to have been started there by a celebrated Scottish piper, and he learned all there was to learn.

The system of this Irish school permitted one pupil only to be in the presence of the master at a time, but Donull Mor, in his anxiety to learn, hid himself in a corner, where he could hear all the other students—there were twenty-four—at their lessons. He required only to hear a tune once to remember it completely, so he very soon exhausted the repertory of the master. When he came back to Skye, Mac Leod was delighted with the progress he had made. But the piper was not destined to remain at peace long. He had a brother who, because of a squint in one of his eyes, was known as Padruig Coag, or Squinting Peter, and this brother quarrelled with a foster brother of his own, a native of Kintail, who afterwards treacherously killed him. Big Donald swore vengeance, and going up to his chief’s room threw his pipes on the bed. Mac Leod asking what was wrong, Donald told his story, and demanded that his chief should avenge his clansman. Mac Leod promised to see justice done within a year, and Donald took his leave. The chief, however, had no intention of executing vengeance on the Kintail man; he only wished to give Donald’s anger time to cool. But he did not know his man, for at the end of the year Donald, without giving a hint to anyone, set out in pursuit of his brother’s murderer. He found that he was in Kintail, but in hiding, and as the people of the village declined to give him up, the wrath of Donald Mór Mac Crimmon broke all bounds. He set fire to eighteen of their houses, a trick which cost several lives. It was then his turn to go into hiding, which he did in Lord Reays country. The Lord of Kintail offered a big reward for his arrest, but he was not caught, though he was known to be wandering among the hills. His principal place of concealment was in a shepherd’s house, where a bed was specially made for him in the wall. At last Kintail came to know of this haunt of Mac Crimmon’s, and sent his son with a dozen men to seize him. Donald Mór was in the house when the shepherd’s wife saw the party coming, and he betook himself to bed. The woman then made a big fire in the centre of the floor, where fires were always made in those days, and when the avenger of blood came with his men she welcomed them effusively, and, making them sit round the fire, she hung their plaids on a rope between them and Mac Crimmon’s bed. Then the fugitive slipped out behind and was free, profiting as other and more notable men have done by a woman’s astuteness. When the pursuers had searched the house and found nothing, the shepherd’s wife entertained them hospitably and kept them for the night. When they had gone to rest Mac Crimmon came in and, gathering all their arms while they slept soundly, he placed the weapons all over their leader and retired. When morning broke, Mac Kenzie of Kintail immediately realized what had taken place, and was astonished at the generosity of Big Donald. “If Donald Mór Mac Crimmon is alive,” he said, “it was he that did this, and it was as easy for him to take my life as to do so.” When they went outside they saw Mac Crimmon on the other side of a stream, and when his men essayed to ford the stream and seize him, Mac Kenzie threatened to shoot the first who touched the piper, and swore to Mac Crimmon that if he would cross the river he would not be injured. After all the men had been sworn to the same purpose, Mac Crimmon did cross, and in consideration of his nobility in sparing his life during the night, Mac Kenzie took the piper home with him, and by dint of special pleading managed to obtain for him the forgiveness of Lord Kintail. Then Donald Mór returned to his allegiance at Dunvegan, where he remained ever after—a great piper. It was after his day that the Mac Crimmons were universally acknowledged to be the best pipers in Scotland, so much so that no piper was considered perfect unless he had studied for some time under them.

Donald Mór Mac Crimmon was succeeded by his son Patrick Mór. This Patrick had eight sons, seven of whom died within twelve months. On this great bereavement he composed a tune called Cumha no Cloinne, or “The Lament for the Children.” In 1745 Mac Leod’s piper was Donald Bàn Mac Crimmon, the composer of “Mac Crimmon’s Lament.” Mac Leod was opposed to Prince Charlie, and when he was defeated at Inverurie by Lord Louis Gordon, Donald Bàn was taken prisoner. On this occasion a striking mark of respect was paid to Mac Crimmon by his brother pipers in Lord Louis Gordon’s following. The morning after the battle they did not play as usual, and on inquiry it was found that they were silent because Mac Crimmon was a prisoner. He was immediately set at liberty, but was killed shortly after at “The Rout of Moy,” a rather tragic incident in Highland Jacobite History. It was before leaving on the expedition in which he met his death that Donald Bàn composed “Mac Crimmon’s Lament,” under the presentiment that he would never see Dunvegan again. On the night of the Rout of Moy, it was said, a second-sight man saw the body of Mac Crimmon shrunken to the proportions of a child, a sure sign of impending death. Donald Bàn was said to excel most of his race by the beauty and neatness with which he noted on paper the tunes he played and composed.

How the race became extinct—if it is extinct—cannot be determined. John Dubh Mac Crimmon was the last who held the hereditary office, and of him it is related that about 1795 he determined, probably because of the changed circumstances, to emigrate to America, that he actually went as far as Greenock, but that there his love for the misty island became too much for him, and he went back to Skye. But he was not then piper to Mac Leod, and he spent the rest of his life in retirement. When he became too infirm to play the pipes, he would sit outside and run over the notes on his walking stick. He lived to the age of 91, dying in 1822, and was buried with his fathers in the kirkyard at Durinish. Music of the Highland Clans, written in 1862, states that the last of this noble race of minstrels was a blind and venerable old gentleman then living at Gourock; but Logan’s Scottish Gael, written in 1831, says a Captain Mac Crimmon “died lately in Kent at an advanced age, and the descendant of these celebrated pipers is now a respectable farmer in Kent.” The author of Musical Memoirs of Scotland (1849) says the Mac Crimmons ended in a woman then keeping school in Skye, who could go through all the intricacies of the pibroch on the family instrument. There is said to have been a piper of the name in Glasgow about 1872, who claimed to be a direct descendant of the Mac Crimmons. He was an old man then, and all trace of him is now lost. If he is dead, which is highly probable, it is almost certain, that although the race as dimmed. So Mac Crimmon generally found some excuse for sending Mac Arthur away to some distance when he wished to play these tunes. One day his master had a visitor who desired to hear one of the highly-prized melodies, and in order to get the boy Mac Arthur out of the way Mac Crimmon sent him a message to a neighbouring township some miles distant. But the boy, suspecting the plot, lingered about the door until he heard the tunes, and then rushed off on his message. Afterwards in a secluded spot he practised the airs until he became perfect. But Mac Crimmon one day suddenly heard a tune which he thought he alone could play, and angrily approaching the performer, whom he found to be his pupil, he said:—“You young rascal, where have you picked up that piece of music?” “I picked it up in the back door that day you entertained your friend to it,” said Mac Arthur, assuming the utmost indifference; “and,” he continued, “I shall lose no more time than the boat shall take on her voyage to Mull in telling my master that you are not giving me the full benefit of your talents, for which you were amply paid by my benefactor.” Old Mac Crimmon felt somewhat alarmed at the cool indifference with which his pupil addressed him, and, knowing what would result from the matter being made known to his influential patron, he very discreetly confessed his guilt, and promised his clever pupil better attention in the future. Pupil and tutor seem to have got on very well after this incident, and when, in the course of a year or two, Mac Arthur quitted the Mac Crimmon College, he was ranked among the foremost pipers of his day.

Mac Donald granted the Mac Arthurs a perpetual gift of the farm of Peingowen, near the castle of Duntulm. Like the Mac Crimmons, they kept a “college.” Their establishment, which was at Ulva near Mull, was divided into four apartments, one for their own use, one for receiving strangers, one for the cattle, and one for the use of the students while practising. Charles Mac Arthur, the best known of the race, received his education from Patrick Og Mac Crimmon, staying at Dunvegan Castle for this purpose for eleven years. He taught a nephew, who afterwards settled in Edinburgh, became piper to the Highland Society of Scotland, and was known in the capital as “Professor” Mac Arthur. At a competition in 1783, he performed, we are told, “with great approbation,” receiving a splendid set of pipes specially made for him, and a number of the then leading pipers subscribed to a testimonial to his merits. It was also agreed to support a plan of his for a college to instruct those whose services might be useful in Highland regiments, but of this nothing more was heard. The last of the Mac Donalds’ hereditary pipers was another nephew of the great Charles Mac Arthur, who died in London. He was piper to the Highland Society of London, and composed many pieces of considerable merit. Like the Mac Crimmons, the Mac Arthurs noted their music by a system of their own, and they made large collections of pibrochs.

The Archibald Mac Arthur, of whom a sketch is given on another page, was a native of Mull, and was acknowledged to be well skilled in bagpipe music, having been taught by a Mac Crimmon. In 1810, the date of the print, he entered for the annual competition at Edinburgh, but failing to carry off the first prize, he refused to accept the second, thereby debarring himself from again appearing on a similar occasion. When the King visited Edinburgh in 1822, this Mac Arthur followed in the train of his chief, from whom he held a cottage with a small portion of land. That part of the island of Staffa on which this croft was situated was sold, but Mac Arthur, though no longer employed in his former capacity, was allowed by the new proprietor to remain in his old home. Angus Mac Kay, it should be added, tells of a John Mac Arthur, who, in 1806, obtained second place in the Edinburgh competition, but declined to accept the prize. Probably there was but one such incident although name and date are mistaken in one case or the other.

were hereditary pipers to Menzies of Menzies. The Menzies’ lived in Rannoch, and the first Mac Intyre of whom we hear was Donald Mór, who is said to have returned from the Isles about 1638, having apparently been at Skye receiving the finishing touches to his musical education. His son, John Mac Intyre also studied at Dunvegan. Donald Bàn, his son, succeeded him as piper to the chief, Sir Robert the Menzies, third Bart. When he died his son Robert, who should have succeeded him, was piper to the chief of Clan Ranald, and although, being the eldest son, he inherited the pipes which, according to tradition, were played at Bannockburn, he did not take up his father’s office. Ultimately he went to America, leaving the old pipes with the Mac Donalds of Loch Moidart. John Mac Intyre, his only brother, lived in the Menzies country, but cannot have been a piper, for he does not seem to have filled the office either. He died about 1834, and men of other names were afterwards pipers to the Menzies. Descendants of the Mac Intyres were living near Loch Rannoch about the middle of the last century, and some are probably there to this day.

were pipers to the Mac Kenzies of Gairloch, and one of them at least was accounted second only to the Mac Crimmons. The family came originally from Sutherlandshire, and began with Rorie, or Ruaraidh Mac Kay, who about 1592 found it advisable to leave his native place. As a boy he was appointed piper to the laird of Mac Kay, and on one occasion he accompanied his master to Meikle Ferry with John Roy Mac Kenzie of Gairloch, who had been on a visit to the Mac Kay Country. At the ferry the servant of another gentleman, who was also about to cross, tried to retain the boat, and Mac Kay, then a lad of seventeen, in hot-headedness drew his dirk and cut off the servant’s hand. Thereupon his master said he could not keep him in his employment. Mac Kenzie at once gave the piper an invitation to come with him, and the matter was arranged on the spot. Rorie ever after was a Gairloch man, but beyond the story of how he came to the district, little of his personal history is known. In his duties as piper he was frequently assisted by his brother, Donald Mòr Mac Kay, who, however, returned to the Reay Country before his death. Rorie was piper in succession to four chiefs of Gairloch. He died in 1689 at an extreme old age, leaving one son. Him he sent to Dunvegan to be trained by Patrick Og Mac Crimmon, and when he left, after seven years’ study, it was acknowledged that he had no equal except his master. This piper, Am Piobaire Dall, Iain Dall, or, in plain English, John Mac Kay, was the most famous of the Gairloch pipers. He was an enthusiast in his profession, and composed twenty-four pibrochs, besides a number of strathspeys and reels. He was well read, though blind, and knew the histories of Ireland, France, Greece, and Scandinavia, while none excelled him in knowledge of Ossianic poetry and legendary lore. When he became advanced in years he was superannuated, and passed his time in making excursions into the Reay country and Skye, visiting at gentlemen’s houses, to which he was always welcome. He died in 1854, at the age of ninety-eight, and was succeeded by his son Angus, who in his turn was succeeded by his son John Mac Kay. The four members of the family were pipers in succession to eight chiefs of Kintail, the succession in each case being from father to son. The Mac Kays, as has been said, came originally from the Reay Country, the home of all the Mac Kays, where there seems to have been a college similar to that kept at Dunvegan by the Mac Crimmons; at any rate, a peculiarly large number of Mac Kay pipers came from the district, just as if they had been trained in a school.

The changing times were too much for the Mac Kays, as for the other pipers, and in 1805 the representative of the family, the John Mac Kay last mentioned, went to America. He died in Pictou in 1835, when over eighty years of age. The late Mr. Alexander Mac Kenzie, editor of the Celtic Magazine, on a tour through the States in 1880, met one of the family. “More interesting to me,” he wrote, “than all my other discoveries on this continent was finding a representative of the famous pipers and poets of Gairloch in the person of John Mac Kay, who occupies the most honourable and prominent position in this thriving town (New Glasgow), that of stipendiary magistrate. His great-grandfather was the celebrated blind piper of Gairloch.” Afterwards Mr. Mac Kenzie tells of the circumstances of the family in America. They had, he says, ceased to be pipers, and no one of the race kept up the traditions of their fathers in the strange land.

—called in Gaelic Clann Raing—were anciently called Clann Duille, being descended from one of the progenitors of the Clan Mac Lean called Cudulligh, or Cu-duille. They were pipers to the Mac Leans of Duart, the High Chief of the Clan, and became pipers to the Mac Leans of Coll after the Duarts lost their lands, when Sir John Mac Lean was chief in the beginning of the eighteenth century. They were hereditary pipers from time immemorial, and the most noteworthy incident associated with them of which we have any authentic record occurred when the great Dr. Johnson visited their island. The piper who played every day while dinner was being served attracted the doctor’s attention, and he expressed admiration of his picturesque dress and martial air, and observed that “he brought no disgrace on the family of Rankin.” We have few dates connected with the Rankins, but we have on record a letter from a John Mac Lean, on the garrison staff of Fort-William, Bengal, written in January, 1799, which states that thirty years before “Hector Mac Laine was piper to John Mac Lain of Lochbuoy, and was allowed to be the first in Scotland.” This “Mac Laine” was probably a Rankin. Like so many of the others, America provided them, too, with an ultimate home, the last hereditary Rankin emigrating to Prince Edward Island.

were pipers to the Campbells of Mochaster, in Argyllshire, and they, too, were indebted to Patrick Og Mac Crimmon for a good deal of their training. The latest record of them in their official capacity is to be found on a tombstone, in Bellside Churchyard, Lanarkshire, erected by Walter Frederick Campbell of Isla and Shawfield, an M.P. in the year of grace 1831, over his piper, John Campbell.

Besides those mentioned, there were famous, if not actually hereditary, pipers in different parts of the Highlands. A branch of the Mac Gregors established a school in Rannoch, and, the Mac Phersons of Cluny and nearly all the other Highland chiefs of any note had excellent pipers, many of whom produced pieces of considerable merit. But the hereditary pipers have all passed away long ago, with the passing of that phase of life which was necessary to their existence. Their names, however, are still names to conjure with, and are likely to be so long as a love for their music remains a prominent trait of Highland character.