Tour Scotland 4K short travel video clip of a Scottish Piper playing bagpipes music by McCaig's Tower on Battery Hill in Oban on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Highlands, Britain, United Kingdom. The bagpipes have a bag that holds air. The player keeps the bag full of air by blowing into it with a tube or pumping it with a bellows. To make music, the bag is pressed and the air comes out through a kind of flute or chanter. There are usually one or more other tubes coming from the bag that make sounds whenever the bag is squeezed, called drones. Each drone normally plays a different note, and stays on the same note the whole time it is playing, to play a harmony with the chanter. The sounds are made by a single or, more commonly, double reed which vibrates when air is blown over it. Bagpipes have been in continuous use across Europe, and especially in Great Britain, Ireland and North Western Spain. In Bulgaria, the bagpipes are called a Gaida. Although there are not many bagpipes today that existed prior to the 1800s there are a few examples that suggest they have existed since ancient times. A sculpture that dates to 1000 BC shows bagpipes. Other references to the bagpipes exist in written form dating to the 2nd century AD. The Great Highland Bagpipe or Piob Mhor, is an instrument with opposing harsh shrills and graceful tones, meant to be played outdoors, in the open countryside and it is well suited in inspiring Scotsmen, and women, on the field of battle and in the aftermath, mourning the fallen, or celebrating victory. Through history, pipers are remembered for being mortally or seriously wounded the latter whilst continuing to play in the face of adversity. The tower is built of Bonawe granite taken from the quarries across Airds Bay, on Loch Etive. John Stuart McCaig was his own architect. The tower was erected between 1897 and his death, aged 78 from cardiac arrest, on 29 June 1902 at John Square House, Oban, Argyll. McCaig's intention was to provide a lasting monument to his family, and provide work for the local stonemasons during the winter months. McCaig was an admirer of Roman and Greek architecture, and had planned for an elaborate structure, based on the Colosseum in Rome. His plans allowed for a museum and art gallery with a central tower to be incorporated. Inside the central tower he planned to commission statues of himself, his siblings and their parents. His death brought an end to construction with only the outer walls completed. The surname McCaig was first found in County Galway, Irish: Gaillimh, part of the province of Connacht, located on the west coast of the Island. spelling variations of the surname McCaig include; MacTeige, McTeige, MacTigue, McTigue, MacCaig, MacCaige, McCaig, McCaige, MacKaig, McKaig, MacKeague, McKeague, McKeage, MacTague and many more. Duncan McCaig was convicted in Edinburgh, Scotland for 14 years, and transported aboard the ship Circassian on 4th November 1832, arriving in Tasmania; William McCaig, aged 22, was a labourer, who arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, aboard the ship Madawaska in 1833; John McCaig, who arrived in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, America, in 1852; Robert McCaig landed in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, America, in 1876. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome.
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