McCallum Bagpipes was formed in 1998 by its existing partners, Kenny MacLeod and Stuart McCallum. Kenny and Stuart had known each other for years through piping, both being members of the Glasgow Skye Association Pipe Band.

Kenny MacLeod has been involved in making and selling bagpipes since 1982, working for Kintail in Cumbernauld and Glasgow. In 1988, he was one of the founding partners in his own company, MacLeod Highland Supplies. That proved to be very successful in a short period of time, selling bagpipes and all pipe band equipment. In 1995, Kenny sold his share in MacLeod's and moved to Los Angeles, California to play with the Los Angeles Police Pipe Band. He also started selling bagpipes and teaching while he was there. It was really hard to get supplies of pipes and chanters at that time so Kenny asked Stuart if he could make practice chanters to help with delivery times.

Stuart McCallum has a background in precision engineering. He is a time served tool maker and has a specialised knowledge in programming and operating CNC machinery. He worked for a local Kilmarnock engineering company, McCrindles Tooling. They were suppliers to many big companies and made engine parts for Rolls Royce and the aero industry. He progressed from engineer to foreman to production engineer and his job was to programme the CNC milling and turning machinery. Stuart uses all the precise skills and tolerances he used in his engineering background when making bagpipes.

Kenny was already selling practice chanters made by Stuart when he was in California. They were an instant success so when Kenny came back in 1998 they decided to join forces and develop bagpipes and pipe chanters.

McCallum Bagpipes has grown in a short period of time into one of the world's leading bagpipemakers. We stared in in 1998 with 3 people; we now have 25. We manufacture 40 sets of bagpipes every week, along with pipe chanters, practice chanters and smallpipes. We make all these products in our factory, we don't buy any practice chanters from anywhere else. We can control the quality of all of our products and don't have to rely on any other makers for supplies. Most of our staff are pipers and take pride in there work. They want to be associated with the best bagpipes and will always try to help customers where possible.

Check out the details of the McCallum Bagpipes team on this site.

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