The Zetland pipes were a type of bagpipe designed and crafted by Pipe Major Royce Lerwick in the 1990s.

Historical impetus

Lerwick believed that the bagpipes had been introduced to the British Isles by the Vikings. His "Zetland pipes" were intended to resemble single-drone, single-reeded pipes such as might have been brought to the Shetland Islands

Shetland Islands

Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...

 by the Vikings. The term "Zetland" is an antiquated variant of "Shetland".

The original impetus for the design, according to Lerwick, was the Lady Maket pipes, or Silver Pipes of Ur. This was an archaeological find, resembling bagpipes, dating back to 2500 BCE.

Practical impetus

Lerwick's Zetland pipes were also intended to be a type of smallpipe that would be easy to learn and maintain, and applicable to popular folk and Celtic music. The handbook supplied with the pipes offered options for adapting different types of open or closed fingerings for the pipe, for maximum versatility, and also methods to change the modal scale of the pipe for playing different types of music.

Design

The pipes consisted of a mouth-blown blowpipe, a single bass drone

Drone (music)

In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The word drone is also used to refer to any part of a musical instrument that is just used to produce such an effect.-A musical effect:A drone...

, and a single-reeded chanter

Chanter

The chanter is the part of the bagpipe upon which the player creates the melody. It consists of a number of finger-holes, and in its simpler forms looks similar to a recorder...

 in the key of D. This key was chosen as it was ideally suited for much of the Celtic repertoire. The single-reed gave the chanter a mellow sound, akin to the Swedish sackpipa.

Marketing

The Zetland pipes were sold online, offered in either "American green ebony" or striped ebony. Natural drone reeds were included, with synthetic Highland drone reeds an option for both drone and chanter. Lerwick ceased production of the pipes around the year 2000.