Famous Pipers
that according to his
own piper John Ban
Mackenzie (Am
Piobaire Ban), Angus
was the best piper in
Scotland.
The title of his
monumental work is
‘A Collection of
Ancient Piobaireachd
or Highland Pipe
Music’. It was
St Mary’s Hospital,‘Bedlam’,from an engraving of 1828
published with the support of the Library of Scotland (ref: 3756) and
HighlandSocietyofLondon.Thelast surely makes the most interesting
five years of his life when he suffered reading.
from mental illness should never be
Translations
allowed to diminish his outstanding
role in the preservation of
from the Diary
piobaireachd despite the contention Thisashowthediarybeginsasnoted
of Mr A Campsie in his book ‘The during his first year in St Mary’s:
MacCrimmon Legend and the Thainig miseAonghas Maclain,mhic
Madness of Angus MacKay’. Mr RuariarugadhannanEireRarsai,aruig
Campsie argues that Angus MacKay an Hospital seo bho mo thigh fein an 4
invented much of his material and Sussex Straid,Pimlico,Lunain,Sasguin,
uses the evidence of his illness to air Di – luain am fichaideamh la dhen
discredit his work. But Angus’s great mhios seo.
contribution to Highland music was Translation
presentedtothepipingfraternitywell ‘IAngus,thesonofIain,thesonof
before the onset of his mental illness Roderick born in Eire,Raasay,came
in 1854. As the first royal piper, he tothishospitalfrommyownhouseat
raisedtheHighlandbagpipetoanew 4 Sussex Street, Pimlico, London, in
levelofsocialacceptability,something England,on Monday the 20th of this
we continue to enjoy today. month.’[November 1854].
After a time in St Mary of This is what he entered on
Bethlehem Hospital in London November30th,1854:
(‘Bedlam’) Angus MacKay spent the Sann agamsa bha an oidche
last three years of his life at Crichton thrioblaideachanan raoir.Trioblaid mu
Royal Hospital, Dumfries. He dheidhinn mo bhanrigh ‘s mo phrionnsa
drowned while attempting to cross agus an teaghlach san duthaich, mo
the River Nith on 21st March,1859. mhathair ‘s mo phiuthar clann
His diary, compiled whilst in St Dhomhnaill is mo theaghlach fein is
Mary’s, is written over several flimsy teaghlach m’athair.7 Sheal Dia dhomh
pages in the beginning of one of his am bruadar agus fhag mi an cumhachd
MS.The diary is now in the National aigesan a a’saoghal.Ma b’fhior gun tha-
15
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