The Bagpipes of Doom

[dem bones]

This thread was suggested by Justin Marriott's ongoing Pipes of Glory: The Role of Bagpipes in British war Comics compilation in Battling Britons

Tim Hunt

Elliott O'Donnell - The Grey Piper and the Heavy Coach of Donaldgowerie House, Perth: Scottish Ghost Stories (Jarrold, 1975: originally Kegan Paul, 1911). The evil-eyed bagpipe fiend appears to each Whittingen daughter in turn. Mary meets with a freak fatal accident involving a croquet peg. Ruth dies on the operating table. The phantom saves the very worst for Martha, as she fusses over her baby nephew ... One of O'Donnell's nasty ones.


Neil Munro - Red Hand: (The Lost Pibroch and Other Sheiling Stories, 1896: Peter Haining [ed.], The Clans Of Darkness: Scottish Tales Of Terror, 1971). Duelling bagpipes. Ingrate son, Tearlach, sets out to prove he's a finer player than his legendary father, blind Paruig Dall, causing much ill-feeling across Skye in the process. His mother, Giorsal, steps in with a sharp knife to settle the matter for good. Without the benefit of Haining's glossary, I'd have found this story impenetrable.

Barbara Roden - Strone House: (Paul Finch [ed.], Terror Tales Of The Scottish Highlands, 2015). A tiny cell near a derelict tower on the Campbell family estate reputedly houses a consumptive piper, imprisoned in the seventeenth century. Mr. Marsden's tour of the overgrown grotto and adjoining ruins puts the ancient one on his guard. A creepy quiet ghost story.

Washington Irving - The Adventure of My Grandfather: [aka, The Bold Dragoon]. (Tales of a Traveller, 1824: Al Sarrantonio & Martin H. Greenberg (eds.) - 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories, 1993). After a busy night's carousing, the bold Dragoon beds down in the supposedly "haunted" chamber of a Flemish inn. A bagpipe-playing ghost in long flannel gown and nightcap sets all the furniture to jigging around the room.

Alan Hunter By the Yellow Moonrock

Fiona MacLeod (William Sharp) - By the Yellow Moonrock: (The Dominion of Dreams, 1899: David Cowperthwaite [ed]. By the Yellow Moonrock, 1988). Rory MacAlpine, ace piper and drunken skirt-chaser, falls under the spell of the Bhean-Nimhir, adder-woman of the underworld, reputed to suck the souls from men with her kiss, thereby condemning them to slavery among the people of ill-will. The dream woman's tune lures him to his doom on Dalmonadht Moor.

Sir Walter Scott - Wandering Willie's Tale: (Redgauntlet: A Tale of the Eighteenth Century, 1824). Steenie Steenson, farmer and bagpipe legend, borrows from several sources to pay off rent arrears to the fearsome, foul-tongued Laird Robert Redgauntlet, only for the old devil to expire in agony before providing a receipt. Consequently, when Redgauntlet's son and heir demands proof that the debt was ever paid - the money has gone missing - the poor fellow can't oblige and is denounced as a liar and a thief. Steenie vows that he will clear his name, even if he must visit Hell to do so .... That night, while crossing Pitmurkie Wood, he is approached by a kindly, cloven-hooved stranger who offers to help.

H. D. Everett - The Pipers Of Mallory: (The Novel Magazine, May 1917: The Crimson Blind & Other Stories (Wordsworth, 2006) While Jack Frazer is away fighting "the horrible Huns" in France, Cecily, his fiancée, reluctantly moves in with Aunt Winifred, Lady Heron of Mallory, in the Scottish Highlands. Family legend has it that, when the phantom pipers play, a member of the Frazer family dies. Word reaches home that Jack and his brother who nobody likes are missing in action ...

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Garry Kilworth - The Phantom Piper (Methuen Children's Books, 1994) In the Highlands of Scotland, the adults are lured away by a phantom piper - a ghost from the old clan wars, who once called the people to the battle grounds in the Highlands. The children that are left behind find themselves at the mercy of two terrible strangers.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

[Shrink Proof]

Ah yes, The Bagpipes of Doom. As a resident of the Highlands, I can confirm that they all are.

[andydecker]

As someone from the continent who doesn't know better, did they really march with the shrilling bagpipes and kilt into battle at Waterloo and later wars, or is this a myth for movies and novels?

[samdawson]

Oh, goodness, they certainly did, right up to the First World War, when the practice was finally terminated by the War Office. In that war the Scottish Highland regiments wore kilts (in plain khaki, not tartan). The legend is that when the military authorities suggested they switch to battledress trousers like the rest of the British Army they were threatened with a mutiny. The Germans called them the 'women/ladies from hell'. Having had a Scottish father who fought in WW2 it is difficult to underestimate the pride Scots soldiers/ex-soldiers took in their identity as Scottish troops within the British Army and the integral part the pipes played in this. 

Despite the ban the last time a piper helped lead troops into action was on D-Day, when Lord Lovat, commando and Scots Guardsman, led his assault troops ashore accompanied by his own personal piper. The story is told here warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/the-story-of-bill-millin-lord-lovats-mad-piper-of-sword-beach/

On edit, it's shown in the rather dull but largely historically accurate film The Longest Day. The relevant bit is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3oZfXIcO9E

[Shrink Proof]

Nov 24, 2023 16:54:15 GMT andydecker said:

As someone from the continent who doesn't know better, did they really march with the shrilling bagpipes and kilt into battle at Waterloo and later wars, or is this a myth for movies and novels?

Not sure about Waterloo, but on D-Day, 6th June 1944, Lord Lovat, brigadier commanding the 1st Special Service Brigade, instructed his personal piper, Bill Millin, to pipe the commandos and himself ashore, in defiance of specific orders not to allow such an action in battle. When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later that Lord Lovat replied: "Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply".

[andydecker]

Thanks all. Interesting. I remember of course the scene from The Longest Day, having seen the movie a few times. It was kind of interesting to compare it with the 24 hour long documentary about D-Day this year by WWII in Real time on Youtube and Timeghost tv by Indy Neidell. But the bagpipe scene stayed with me.

I think I read about the bagpipes in Cornwell's non-fiction book about Waterloo. But I am not sure. The first account about Waterloo I read in a Reader's Digest condensed version as a young lad about 11 or 12, and it made a big impression on me. Sadly I never could find out the title of the abridged book.

I was always amused by the romanticization of the Highlanders by tvs Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod in the show Highlander, but of course this was produced by Americans and the French, so it may have been, well, a bit too fictional.

[dem bones]

The Phantom Piper (Commando #698) has the most prominent use of the pipes throughout an entire story that I have read, as a comrade promises his dying best friend that he will return to his pipes in Scotland. There follows a one-man romp through occupied territory and any number of hair-raising escapades. — Justin Marriott, Pipes of Glory, Battling Britons #5, June 2023

Anonymous - The Dance Of The Dead: (Peter Haining [ed.] - Great British Tales of Terror, 1972). Cheated and imprisoned by the Mayor whose life he'd saved, Willibrand the piper returns from the grave, raising his fellow dead to spread plague among the community. Apparently a translation of A. Apel's Der Todtentanz, c.1811.

Lanyon Jones - The Call Of The Piper: (When Dusk Comes Creeping, 1985). According to family legend, Glendowen Castle will fall should they allow any disturbance to the burial mound where rest the bones of a Bronze Age minstrel, jewel-encrusted bagpipes and all. Malcolm, young heir to the peerage, allows his curiosity to get the better of him.

Duntroon Castle, Argyllshire
NORTH OF THE Border one would not be surprised to learn of the supernatural skirl of bagpipes, and in fact two castles have resounded to such stirring music, Duntroon [also spelt Duntrune], in Argyllshire, and Culzean in Ayrshire.

Duntroon, one of the oldest inhabited castles in Scotland and which goes back to the end of the 12th century, is reached by a side road running west of the B8025 towards Loch Crinan.

The story of the Phantom Piper of Duntroon goes back to 1615 when feuding between the Campbells and MacDonalds was at its height. At this time Coll Ciotach, of the MacDonald Clan, had captured Duntroon Castle and garrisoned it with his followers, after which he sailed south in his galley to the Isle of Islay. While he was away the Campbell of Duntroon (who had been masters of the castle for five centuries) counter-attacked and retook the fortress, killing every MacDonald except Coll Ciotach's piper. In those days pipers—because of their musical skill—were regarded as privileged persons like heralds.

What anguished the piper was the knowledge that when his master returned he would run straight into an ambush at the castle. Somehow he must find a way of warning him that Duntroon was back in the hands of his enemies. In a flash of inspiration he decided to compose a special pibroch which has become known as The Piper's Warning to his Master.

Some days later the restless gaze of the piper picked out a boat sailing up the Sound of Jura which he recognised as belonging to his master. Taking his pipes he hurried to the castle's ramparts and began to play. The strange tune floated over the sound, and in his galley Coll realised that this was no ordinary welcome; there was something wild and urgent about the melody ... something that hinted of danger. He ordered his rowers to rest while he squinted at the castle, and the piper silhouetted against the sky.

Apart from that solitary figure the place seemed deserted. Where were his clansmen who should have been coming down to the shore to greet their leader? The more Coll puzzled about it, and the more he heard the wail of the pipes, the more suspicious he became. He shouted a command to his helmsman, and the galley turned and churned back down the sound.

At the castle the MacDonalds, realising the loyal piper had robbed them of their prey, seized him and slashed off his fingers in savage revenge. He soon died from loss of blood and was buried beneath the flagstones of the castle kitchen. But from then on his warning pibroch has been heard skirling from the battlements.

A hundred years ago restoration work was undertaken at Duntroon and beneath the ancient slabs of the kitchen a skeleton was discovered-with its fingerbones missing. It was given a proper burial by the Dean of Argyll.

Culzean Castle, Ayrshire
The sound of a Kennedy piper haunts Culzean Castle which today is a collection of Georgian buildings-described as 18th- century Picturesque-surrounding an ancient tower which was once the stronghold of the Kennedy Clan. In the 16th century the family divided and actually fought a battle, the Kennedys of Culzean becoming the victors. Whether the phantom piper goes back to this time I do not know, but it is not unusual, when the cold wind howls from the Firth of Clyde, for the lament of his pipes to be heard above the gale.

— Marc Alexander, Haunted Castles, 1974.

[dem bones]

Jack Kirby:

"No one heard the laughter and the dancing feet or the skirl of the bagpipes ... except this man. This is the weird account of what happened to him when he decided to stalk ... The Merry Ghosts of Campbell Castle, Black Magic #27 (Nov. 1953).

Phantom Piper turns up at last

PIPER George Griffiths, missing presumed killed in 1916, turned up again yesterday —to fondle the pipes he left tangled in the barbed wire of the Somme.
The war was over when salvage workers found the pipes, plastered with mud, still dangling in the wire.
That was where Griffiths left them—quite Involuntarily—when he played his unit of the Tyneside Scottish, the "Geordie Highlanders," over the top.
On the pipes was the name of the Tyneside brewer who presented them to the regiment. The pipes were returned to him.

I'm not dead

Then, officers of the regiment's last surviving unit, a Territorial battery attached to the Royal Artillery, reclaimed them.
As a tribute to Piper Griffiths—missing presumed killed, according to regimental records—it was arranged to hand over the pipes at the unit's St. Andrew's Day parade yesterday. Griffiths, aged 68, heard about it and telephoned. "I'm not dead." he reported from his home at Leadgate, Co. Durham.
Yesterday he stood, a small man in Sunday best, amid red-tabbed officers in St. Andrew's Church. Newcastle.
"There must have been a mix-up." he said softly. "I was trapped in the wire.
"I was transferred to another unit and the War Office handled my papers."
He idly fitted his fingers to the chanter. The mix-up was over.

— Daily News Chronicle, 30 November 1959

Ghostly sound of pipes inspires Gaby

GHOSTLY bagpipe music echoing along chilly corridors, mysterious footsteps pacing the floor above his head, and phantom shapes disturbing his sleep in the haunted Red Room of Delgatie Castle, Turriff.
These are among the experiences 30-year-old French sculptor Gaby Michel described to millions of his countrymen in broadcasts direct to France from the centuries-old seat of the Clan Hay.
Gaby was selected from 2000 entrants in a contest run by Radio Europe One to spend a week as the guest of Captain John Hay of Hayfield.
Now, after six days at the castle, he says: "I'm convinced there is something here, but I can't get through to it.
"I believe that many years ago a Frenchman came here and was challenged to play the pipes. He never did and ended up in the well in the Castle grounds because he had dishonoured France.
"I'm sure it was the sound of the pipes coming from the well that I heard."
So to save the honour of France—and win himself over £300—he has had to learn to play a tune on them by to-day. And the tune chosen is a composition of Captain Hay—"The Lassie's Far Away."

IN A DREAM

"At first I think I will never be able to do it. But then after I heard the bagpipe music a red-haired woman came to me in a dream and showed me correct fingering for the tune.
"First thing in the morning as soon as I wake, I dash to the ibrary, pick up the bagpipes—and know how to move my fingers." said Gaby, stroking his red beard.
"When I tried before, it was impossible for me. When I play now it will be pretty good for only a weeks learning, but I have to thank also Piper Hepburn, who has been very good to me.

HAUNTED RED ROOM

Gaby's most exciting moments have always come as he has lain in the huge four-poster bed of the haunted Red Room
"I'm not scared you understand, but when I hear something in the bedroom, little cold thrills run along my back and body."
One night it was footsteps walking across the ceiling above his head. Another night he wakened to see two shapes moving in on him from either side.
"It was not anything with a human form," said Gaby. "But I'm still sure something passed through the bedroom.
"Capt. Hay told me that he had an Army friend staying in the same room, and he had the same thing happen to him"
Gaby's visit ends on Sunday when he leaves for his home town of Lunel in the south of France and his wife and three children
"But I shall make something for the Castle and Capt. Hay, for every one has been very good to me." said Gaby "And one day I shall come back."

— Aberdeen Evening Express, 3 December 1960

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Nov 29, 2023 21:18:24 GMT dem bones said:

Jack Kirby:

"No one heard the laughter and the dancing feet or the skirl of the bagpipes ... except this man. This is the weird account of what happened to him when he decided to stalk ... The Merry Ghosts of Campbell Castle, Black Magic #27 (Nov. 1953).


I thought this was familar. Here is Bagpipes From Hell from 1980, mentioned in an earlier post. Was Weird a magazine that just reused old story ideas?

[dem bones]

Alan Robson - The Embleton Piper: (Grisly Trails and Ghostly Tales, 1992). Robson can mostly be relied upon to deliver the gory goods, but not on this occasion. A disgustingly unhorrible account of a 14th century Scot captured by vengeful Northumberland villagers, who soon won them around with his gentle manner and mastery of the pipes. Several hundred years later, his ghost plays on.

Another couple from 'fifties Horror comics;

The Last of the Glanamores, Ghost Comics #8, 1953. "All of his ancestors had lived to an age far beyond the allotted three-score and ten. Only recently he had received word that his grandfather had died at the age of one hundred and twenty-nine years. Had some ancient secret of longevity gone with the old man's passing? Or would this mysterious life force continue on in him? He had to know. He was the last of the Glanamores."

Read it on Comic Book Plus, to whom many thanks.

Lou Cameron

Curse of the Midnight Piper, Beyond #16, Oct. 1952. "Jean MacNorn, a young Canadian heiress, had inherited the ancestral Castle MacNorn in Scotland, and accompanied by her ne'er do well cousin, Duncan, went to investigate her newly acquired property. But what started as a pleasure jaunt for the young owner, ended in violence and death for many, as Jean MacNorn became inextricably involved in the ancient curse ..."

Comic Book Plus

[helrunar]

Love those Fifties horror comics. Excellent finds!

I checked and Black Magic is still available on the Comic Books Plus site. Chamber of Chills was deleted because the books were reprinted and now, of course, are again mostly OP so nobody except lucky collectors can read them. Isn't modern life simply divine.

Hel.