Set Tunes Series 2026: “The Pride of Barra”

Next in our exclusive 2026 Set Tunes Series by Willie Donaldson is “The Pride of Barra,” a piobaireachd included on the Piobaireachd Society’s list of pieces eligible for submission to the Highland Society of London Gold Medal competitions at the Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting.

Willie Donaldson writes: “[The Pride of Barra is] a typical family member would be the tune nowadays known as ‘The Battle of the Pass of Crieff.’ ‘Porst Ullare’ is another that comes to mind. As we see in Colin Campbell’s grouping of tunes in his manuscript, this illustrates the way the old players thought in terms of tunes linked in clusters, bound together by tonal relationships, scale and motif.”

As with all of the nearly 200 piobaireachds in our Set Tunes Series, which began in 2001, Dr. Donaldson provides all known published settings of “The Pride of Barra,” along with an audio file of his interpretation.

The author of the seminal work, The Highland Pipe & Scottish Society, Willie Donaldson explores manuscripts inaccessible to most pipers, comparing and contrasting every published setting of these great tunes in the Set Tunes Series.

What began a quarter-century ago quickly became and remains the greatest free collective piobaireachd resource for pipers worldwide.

Willie Donaldson received more than eight years of ongoing instruction in ceol mor from the great Robert Bell Nicol of Balmoral, Scotland, and we are grateful to him for his work with us over the last 26 years and for his prodigious lifetime of service to pipers and the art.

Stay tuned to pipes|drums for each new installment in Dr. William Donaldson’s Set Tunes Series.