The Highland bagpipe has long been a central strand of Scottish identity, but what happened to the Highland bagpipe in the two centuries following Culloden? How was its music transmitted and received? This study presents contemporary evidence and uses a range of methods to recreate the changing world of the pipers as they influenced and were influenced by the transformation in Scottish society. Combining newspaper and manuscript evidence from the pipers themselves with a wide range of historical sources, the author harnesses the insights of the practical player to those of the historian and provides a fresh account of the players and their musical traditions.