Established in 1944, the College is the international centre of world piping with more than 65 years experience in teaching Scotland’s national instrument, the great Highland bagpipe. A registered charity, the College keeps its lessons as affordable as possible by subsidising them with profits from the College Shop. Many thousands of students at home and abroad have benefited. 

Each month the College publishes piping’s most authoritative journal, the award-winning Piping Times. The magazine has a global monthly readership of 10,000.The College publishes and distributes a large selection of tutor books, manuals and historical writings on the bagpipe and its music. Its Tutor Book 1 is the industry standard training manual for the instrument and has sold more than 395,000 copies worldwide. It is the biggest selling piping book in history. It has been translated into Gaelic, French and German with other translations pending. In the 1950s the College pioneered outreach teaching establishing schools in the Highlands of Scotland and in North America. This work continues today and 2007 saw the establishment of the first outreach piping school on mainland Europe at Bruggen in northern Germany.

In 2008 the College opened a new Lecture Hall so completing the re-development of its premises and guaranteeing its future for many years to come. The College can now host the most important competitions and concerts in the piping calendar. The College makes no draw on the public purse and survives by the diligence and dedication of its staff and teachers, and the goodwill of the piping fraternity worldwide. It strives to bring Scotland’s national music to all irrespective of means or background – truly a centre of excellence for people the world over.