Hundreds of pipers and drummers will march across Scotland this summer in an ambitious six-week showcase of military and civilian bands.
The Pipers' Trail, dubbed the Tattoo on Tour, will cover more than 470 miles from Lerwick in the north to Ayr in the south, ending with a week-long stay in Edinburgh to coincide with the Fringe Festival. Each mile will be piped by at least one musician, with performances by several bands in 11 towns and cities on the way.
The trail has been devised by the British Army and the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association to merge piping talent from all backgrounds.
Brigadier H David Allfrey, Commander 51 (Scottish) Brigade, said that it would help promote the Army's place in society.
He said: "We are hoping to engage with people, those who have an interest in piping and drumming and music in general. The intention is to provide, through the medium of bagpipes and Highland drumming, an insight into Scottish culture."
The Pipers' Trail will coincide will the 100-year anniversary of the Territorial Army and the centenary of the Queen Victoria School in Dunblane, which has a strong tradition of piping tuition.
The trail will have 11 workshops for beginners or those wanting to improve on piping skills.
Brigadier Allfrey said: "What is really exciting is that young people, or people of any age, can sample a workshop, have a rehearsal on the Friday and be out on the streets performing on the Saturday."
Eleven bands have been booked to start the event in Orkney and Shetland.
Drum major Drew Caldwell, of the 4th Battalion Scots Highlanders Royal Regiment, said: "When you are out in Iraq or Afghanistan, last thing at night as the sun goes down, it is nice to hear the skirl of the pipes."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article