Combined effort to add piping to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list

Six professors and institutional leaders from the Highland piping community are seeking to have Scottish piping added to the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization) Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the Inventories of Living Heritage in the UK. They are encouraging pipers and drummers worldwide to support the effort.

Hugh Cheape (University of the Highlands and Islands), Josh Dickson (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Finlay MacDonald (National Piping Centre), Simon McKerrell (Glasgow Caledonian University), Jack Taylor (Piobaireachd Society), and Gary West (University of Edinburgh) have joined to lobby the UK Government to add “Scottish piping” to the official list of “practices, music, dance, crafts, and other forms of knowledge recognized as essential to people’s sense of belonging, identity, and creativity, and generally encompasses traditional music, dance, drama, and crafts worldwide.”

The group plans to hold “an initial exploratory hybrid meeting” at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow and online in January or February 2026, with as many individuals and groups as possible participating.

Those interested in contributing should use a contact form to submit their details.

“The application should do justice to the many facets of Scottish piping culture that constitute a rich and complex musical heritage recognized worldwide,” McKerrell said in a statement. “From the light music of the Highland pipes to its piobaireachd traditions, pipe bands, to the bellows piping of the Lowlands and Borders and piping’s indelible links with both Gaelic and Scots languages, and all of the performance contexts from folk bands to canntaireachd, in making piping accessible to all.”