Rising chant: Oldest Highland chanter returns to Scotland

The oldest Highland bagpipe chanter has returned to Scotland after more than 200 years in Canada.

• Harris McLellan, of the National Youth Pipe Band, displays the Highland chanter, or melody pipe, at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow. Picture: PA

It belonged to 17th-century composer Iain Dall MacKay, whose grandson emigrated to Nova Scotia with it in 1805.

There, it was handed down to members of the family for eight generations.

However, the MacKay Sinclair family recently decided to return it to Scotland in respect of its significance to musical history.

They have now donated the chanter to National Museums Scotland.

The chanter, the bagpipe's melody pipe, is on show at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, where a part of the museum's piping collection is displayed.

Michael Sinclair, who has donated the chanter, said: "There's great scholarship in piping associated with the museum and we felt that it would be a good location for the chanter to be seen and appreciated by young pipers."