Piper Andrew MacIntyre played the Faery Pipes for only the fourth time in 200 years. Photograph: Kevin McGlynn
A set of ancient enchanted bagpipes were played at last weekend’s World Gathering of MacIntyres in Taynuilt and Oban. Legend says the Faery Pipes of Kinlochmoidart were hand-made by a MacIntyre piper more than 800 years ago, and were played at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The story goes that when the MacIntyre piper made the chanter, a fairy came to him and said: ‘Heat up your poker until it’s white hot and pierce the bottom of your chanter side to side and it will make the sweetest sound in Scotland.’ e Faery Pipes are said to be enchanted, and have never been played by the losing side of a battle. They are reputed to be oldest Highland pipes, and the rst with two holes, adding an extra sounding hole at the end of the chanter. Only the chanter now survives of the original set, and the instrument sits in a glass case in the West Highland Museum in Fort William. The Faery Pipes have been played only four times in 200 years, including at the rst World Gathering of the MacIntyres in 2008, by Archie McIntyre, once Gentleman Piper to the Clan MacIntyre Trust, and composer of the piobaireachd e MacIntyres’ Return. The Faery Pipes were played at this year’s clan gathering by piper Andrew MacIntyre from Edinburgh, at the banquet at the Argyllshire Gathering Halls in Oban on Friday July 20. The Oban Times understands a local taxi rm was called there for a pick-up at the end of the night. The driver called in to the hall ‘taxi for MacIntyre’, when there were more than 200 clansfolk present. The pipes were then played again on Sunday July 22 by Ruaraidh Petre, Archie MacIntyre’s nephew, during a ceremony at a cairn to the chiefs of Clan MacIntyre, in Glenoe by Loch Etive, the ancestral lands of MacIntyres, in Ardchattan Parish. The Clan MacIntyre Trust posted: ‘All that remains of the original set is the chanter itself and it’s not a perfect t to modern pipes. Still, the piper managed to play them well.’ e MacIntyres of Rannoch were hereditary pipers to the chiefs of Clan Menzies, and hereditary pipers to the MacDonalds of Clanranald. The name MacIntyre, from the Gaelic Mac an t-Saoir, means ‘son of the carpenter One of Scotland’s nest Gaelic poets, Duncan Ban MacIntyre, known as the ‘Burns of the Highlands’, was born and commemorated in Glenorchy. The clan’s current chief is Donald Russell MacIntyre of Glenoe, and the motto is Per Ardua: rough hardship or diculty.
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26th July 2018
 
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