Millions of people have heard a tune written by a Dundee pipe band leader.
The Steam Train to Mallaig, by Mary-Ann MacKinnon, was included in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and she only found out while watching it on TV on Sunday.
It was part of the medley by the massed pipes and drums.
She said: “It’s a great honour to have a composition played at this event and heard by so many people.
“To have 250 pipers and drummers playing your tune to an international audience night after night throughout the summer and for it be beamed around the world on TV is just amazing.
“It is always exciting to hear a pipe band playing your music and even the same tune can sound completely different, depending on how it has been interpreted or by the effect of drums and other instruments.
“To have a composition played at the Tattoo, however, means a great deal to me, as the main reason I write music is to produce interesting and enjoyable tunes for people to play and listen to.”
The Steam Train to Mallaig is a concert piece for pipe bands with four-part harmony. The tune was inspired by the Jacobite steam train journey from Fort William to Mallaig, a route more recently made famous in the Harry Potter films.
The tune has been recorded by pipe bands across the globe, including the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Black Watch, the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band, the Nunawading Pipe Band of Australia and the current World Pipe Band Champions, the Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band from Northern Ireland.
The tune also inspired the title for Mary-Ann’s book of pipe compositions, Still Steamin’. For anyone who missed the Tattoo performance, it can still be seen on the BBC iPlayer (link).