Who’s the piper who plays at the Bells?

Each year at Hogmanay Strathbungo holds its own celebration, ‘Bungo at the Bells’.

The procession begins at 11:30pm on Nithsdale Road and in Vennard Gardens before winding its way to the venue (this year it’s on the corner of Marywood Square and Moray Place). There’s banging of pots, plenty of drinking and singing, the occasional jig, and lots of meat pies going round. And every year there’s a piper. But the thing is, no one knows who the piper is. Various people around Strathbungo organise one aspect or another of the event but no one organises for the piper to come. No one knows who he is and certainly no one pays him. Yet, every year he (or is it a different piper each year?) dutifully turns up in the middle of the night, bagpipe in hand and belts out the tunes at just the right moment.

If you know the piper, we’re not asking that you tell us. We just ask that you encourage him to come along again this year to Bungo at the Bells and give us a tune or two. And a big thank you in advance to the piper from us at the Blog. Hogmanay just isn’t hogmanay without a piper.

And the more pipers the better. So if you’re not the piper, but have a set, do bring them along and join in.

(Another post on Bungo at the Bells closer the time)