More independent contests opening traditional judging to all sorts, great and small

Until about 1940, solo piping and even some pipe band competitions were judged not only by know-it-all aristocrats with little or even no ability to play the pipes, but by literally any warm-blooded thing with a capacity to nod or shake their head.

In addition to local lairds and farmers, actual farm animals were known to sit alongside marginal pipers like Archibald Campbell and Seton Gordon to pass judgment on the playing of history’s greatest pipers, such as Willie Ross, John MacColl and G.S. McLennan.

Rather than refuse to be adjudicated by a Highland cow, a sheep or a goat, great though these pipers were, they played anyway, collected their prizes, had a dram in the bothy and made their way back to the Castle, the estate, or the armoury. They thought that going along was the way to get along, so they gave up their principles and ethics.

With an increasing number of competitions doing just fine without accredited adjudicators, several Highland games around the world are reportedly combining the piping and pipe band competitions with Scottish farm animal demonstrations and displays.

“They pipers will play for onybody, even their ain teacher, so we thocht we’d gie a coo . . . a crack at judgin’ wha played the best piobaireachd.” – Angus McVitties, Inversnaid Highland Games

“Wha disnae like a bonnie Hielan coo?” said Angus McVitties, Inversnaid Highland Games convenor. “Naebody’s really listenin tae the pipin onywey. They pipers will play for onybody, even their ain teacher, so we thocht we’d gie a coo, or maybe a sheep or a border collie, a crack at judgin’ wha played the best piobaireachd. Abody’s chuffed!”

Farm animals judging pipers never fully went away. Independent solo piping and pipe band contests in deepest, darkest Sutherland, Alabama, Lichtenstein and Yukon have seen no lapse in the number of entries since they started, some more than a century ago.

Various piping and drumming associations did not respond to a request for comment.