McLellan Galleries would be a fitting home for Great Tapestry

Conceived in the east of Scotland by the artist Andrew Crummie, the narrator Alistair Moffat and Dorie Wilkie, makar and organiser of thousands of stitchers across Scotland, it consists of 165 panels of magnificent skilled work telling our Scottish history.

It is a fantastic achievement which deserves a beautiful permanent home.

The public could pay a modest entrance fee to help defray the cost of enabling disabled access. Then we could have a very valuable tourist attraction.

Jean G Melville,

Hughenden Lane, Glasgow.

Many, and especially those of us directly engaged with architecture and the design of the built environment, have followed with interest the development of the new building now emerging across the street from Charles Rennie Mackintosh's world-famous Glasgow School of Art ("Light fantastic as art school takes shape", The Herald, December 28).

Steven Holl is highly rated amongst his fellow professionals and his integration of the existing student union into the new building, along with his homage to Mackintosh in the design of the daylighting features, is to be commended. Certainly the new building on its own merits is much more clever and sophisticated than its predecessor on the site, which was also "modern" but looked rather weary latterly.

That said, the concern I and perhaps others have is with the visual impact of the new building (which your article subtitles "striking and dominant") on the street setting and the special identity of the iconic Mackintosh masterpiece opposite. The proposed design seems to draw too much attention to itself. Might a less abstract facade not have been more sympathetic, simply continuing the understated formality of a traditional Glasgow street as a backcloth to the older building? The new building has still to be finally finished off. My hope is that as it "beds in" it will appear less visually intrusive in reality than your illustrations suggest.

Stephen Downs,

28 Griffiths Street,

Falkirk.

I NOTE with interest your report on the teaching of piping in Edinburgh ("Teachers look down on playing bagpipes", The Herald, January 1). However, as your report points out, it is Edinburgh City Council which is denying the teaching of piping and drumming to their unfortunate pupils, so I don't think the teachers are to blame, although I think you are right about some heads of music departments being "musical snobs".

Piping has never been more popular in Scotland, with a proliferation of juvenile pipe bands and piping thriving not only in the rest of the central belt, but in far-flung places such as Campbeltown, where the local schools instructor, Ian McKerrall, was recently presented with the Balvenie Medal for services to piping based on the fantastic work he is doing there with the Kintyre Schools pipe band.

For my own part, I learned to play the pipes at Allan Glen's School in Glasgow many years ago thanks to the dedication of my maths teacher, Dugald McIntyre, who was (and still is) a piping enthusiast. The head of the music department, a Mr McDougall, was not interested in piping and made that abundantly clear, although even in those days I suspect his hands were tied by higher authorities.

I also had excellent tuition at the College of Piping in Glasgow and its recently rebuilt facility in Otago Street is excellent, and to be recommended to any within the area.

Edinburgh City Council has stated that "no funds are available to provide free piping and drumming lessons in schools". That seems strange, as most of the other councils in Scotland seem to be able to manage their budgets correctly and provide these lessons to the pupils.

The answer is obvious of course. The council has blown all its budgets for many years on the ill-conceived trams fiasco, which has not only disrupted traffic and general life in Edinburgh for residents and visitors but has seemingly severely affected our cultural heritage in that area too. When will they ever learn?

Tom Johnstone,

16 Whitelea Court,

Kilmacolm.