Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham

[Sam humming "The Skye Boat Song"]

Don't.

Stop.

Yes?

Faster!

We're going the wrong way.

Here we are on our way

to begin the next chapter.

Um, song and dance.

Song and dance, which is

a really big part of Scottish culture.

Scotland:

there is perhaps no other country

where music has played such an important role,

from celebration to battle

and everything in between.

Music and the dances that follow

are forever entwined in the nation's history.

And of course, there is one instrument

that is synonymous with Scottish music:

the bagpipe.

The pipes are a part of everything,

from Highland dancing to marching bands

and even traditional folk parties

like ceilidhs.

There is a musical tradition

that runs deep in Scotland,

as song and dance are how Highlanders

passed on their history and culture.

We can truly feel it in the voices,

the movement, and the passion of the people

who carry on that legacy today.

We've set up camp in the heart of the Highlands,

Glencoe.

We'll be joined by one of the people

keeping traditional Scottish music alive,

Gillebride MacMillan,

who plays Gwyllyn the Bard inOutlander.

-Gillebride. - Hello, my friend.

Not a bad clearing you have here.

-How are you, sir? -Not bad. Yourself?

Excuse me. My mouth's full.

-How you doing? -How are you?

I'm just full of Sam's porridge.

-Um... -Looks good.

Please join us. Take a seat.

So you're a Gaelic speaker.

I am. Gaelic's my first language.

Yes, I had no English before I went to school.

And people still speak Gaelic in Scotland.

We see a lot of the road signs are in Gaelic.

There are about 70,000

Gaelic speakers here in Scotland.

Is it the first language of the western isles?

It is, yeah.

So when I was growing up, it would be the first language

of about 90% of the population.

It's very much alive and kicking.

And then how it lives on, though,

is through storytelling, isn't it?

You must yourself hold a lot of...

a lot of stories and songs.

Yes, I suppose I've got any song for any occasion.

Well, then we have an occasion.

Give us a song.

So... curious.

Were you much of a musical theater guy

in your younger days, when you started out?

Were you doing a lot of singing and dancing?

-No. -No, none?

-No, I have to admit-- -No musicals, no?

No, no, I have to admit

that I can't sing or dance.

I need help... musically speaking.

Well, I-I've had a terrible history with musicals,

and I did sing in Outlander.

- -Uh, that was--

it-it had a mixed reception.

Yeah.

"The Maid Get to the Mill by Nicht."

Oh, God, here we go.

No, I'm not gonna sing it.

-Yes, you know the one. -Yeah.

If you ever travel the world...

-Mm. -...no matter what country

you go to,

I-I always seem to encounter bagpipes somewhere,

-in the most random places. -Yes, absolutely.

I was--I remember Santa Monica in-in Los Angeles,

and I remember hearing

-just on the wind... -Yeah.

...the call of the bagpipes.

Some people really do not like them at all.

Well, I think we're gonna convert a lot of people,

because they are magnificent.

We're gonna meet fabulous Iain MacGillivray,

-and he's such a great piper. -Isn't he?

Such a wonderful ambassador

for piping and for Scotland and for his clan.

Is he not the youngest

chief or commander--

-Clan-clan chief. -Clan chief, yes.

And we're gonna meet him at Doune Castle.

Ah, which holds very, very strong memories...

Very good memories...

- ...for both of us. - ..for both of us.

If those walls could speak...

-This is Doune Castle. -Yes, it is, but...

but is it Doune Castle?

It's actually Castle Leoch.

Castle Leoch, your-your home.

My home, exactly.

That was my room at the top there.

Yeah, it's-yeah, it's the one that's been knocked off.

Thanks.

But we're here to meet

this fantastic piper, Iain MacGillivray.

- Iain. -Nice to meet you gentlemen.

-How you doing, Graham? - Ah.

Good to see you.

Now, tell us about the pipes, though.

It's one of the most ancient forms of music

in all of Europe and especially in Scotland.

And this is a big part

of, obviously, Scottish culture as well.

It's a, you know, quite iconic instrument

and also was, uh, um, was an instrument of war.

It became outlawed, or at least,

you weren't allowed to use it unless it was

part of the military; is that right?

I mean, the pipers were there

to kind of drum the spirit,

and it was meant to put fear into the enemies.

-Totally. -A lot of these pipers

would've been taken to the battlefield,

and they would've marched into battle.

And he would've piped for a bit,

and then he would've handed the pipes to...

whoever, and then...

"You hold these; I'm gonna go fight them."

"I don't-- I hold them the last time.

I'm not gonna hold them this time."

When the British Empire started to spread,

they used the Scots on the front line of battle.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

And rather than just being a lone piper,

it became an orchestral set of bagpipes and drums,

so multiple pipers, multiple drummers.

Mm.

And then suddenly, you come

to this First World War.

-Pipes are still being used. - Yes.

Scots regiments are still in kilts.

-Yes, the marching bands. -Then you get

to the Second World War and this amazing story

of Bill Millin.

A piper stormed the beaches of Normandy

playing his pipes, hurling himself

-across the landing craft-- - Yeah, yeah.

The Germans thought he was crazy.

They couldn't believe a piper--

I love it.

And he marched up and down for, like, half an hour.

Yeah, yeah.

And the Germans stopped shooting at him

because they couldn't believe

that anybody would be this insane.

It-it's quite a remarkable story, that, yeah.

-I mean, it's-- -Ah, it's fantastic.

That-that-that symbolizes

literally the essence of bagpiping

in Scottish music as well as on the battlefield.

Music is so embedded in the culture.

It's in your blood. It's in your blood.

It's-it's in our genes.

That's gonna live with us with the rest of our days,

-and I'm-I'm so proud of that. - That's right.

You've got a little bit of a surprise as well

for Graham.

Well, one of your great-relatives

is Simon McTavish of the North West Company

fur trade in Canada.

-Right. -Well, one of our ancestors,

Willie McGillivray, was his uncle,

so we are distantly related...

-Oh, my God. -...which is pretty amazing.