Video: Scot becomes first man to play bagpipes at South Pole

Jak Kennedy has become the first man to play the bagpipes at the South Pole. Picture: Collect

Scot, Jak Kennedy, 29, had to defrost his instrument and wore hand warmers as he braved -30C temperatures to play just for a minute.

He performed ‘Scotland the Brave’ at the ceremonial South Pole and ‘Teribus’ at the geographical pole at the end of a gruelling 70 mile trek

Jak, from Carlops, Scottish Borders, who has played the pipes for 20 years, said he went into autopilot when he started playing.

He said: “I’d been thinking of going to the Antarctic for years and years now but only recently did I think it would be a great idea to play the bagpipes there.

“My gloves were unable to cover the holes properly unfortunately but I loved it.

“Once I got going, I wanted to play for longer but the valve had frozen over completely. I brought the noise rather than the silence.

“Playing the bagpipes really kept spirits up within the group.”

Bagpiper Gilbert Kerr was famously pictured playing to a penguin on the edge of the Antarctic in 1904 but there is no record of him playing at the pole.