Welsh bagpipes

In 1376, the poet Iolo Goch describes the instrument in his Cywydd to Syr Hywel y Fwyall.

[4] "Mabsantau, neithioirau, gwylnosau, &c, were their red-letter days, and the rude merrimaking of the village green the pivot of all that was worth living for in a mundane existence.

The Welsh Academy in 2008 noted that "[i]t is unlikely that there was ever a single standardized form of bagpipe in Wales".

The single-reed chanter is drilled with six small finger-holes and a thumb-hole giving a diatonic compass of an octave.

The double reed chanters come in a variety of pitches, and some of the instruments may be cross-fingered to give different modes.

Contemporary pipe makers in Wales base their chanters on measurements of extant historical examples of the pibgorn.

The single-reed type pipe with a drone attached via the bag is called the pibau cyrn.

A recent development has been the use of imported Breton veuze, Irish uilleann pipes, Galician gaita, French cornemuse and modern English bagpipes on which Welsh repertoire is played.