Island musician Jane Hepburn Macmillan experienced a special honour last weekend – when she was invited to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo to hear the massed pipes and drums perform one of her compositions as part of their repertoire.
Jane, a fiddle player and band member with Face the West, was at the closing night of the Tattoo as a special guest, along with her mum, Betty, as a thank you for allowing them to use her tune, The Rhenigidale Reel, in the performances.
Jane, currently at the start of her probation year as a primary school teacher, described the whole experience as “wild” – from being asked if they could use her tune in the first place to experiencing it in the famous setting at Edinburgh Castle.
It was even used in the opening sequence of the BBC’s programme on the world-renowned event, which went out on television just after the show had finished its run.
Jane said it was “mad” to hear the tune featuring in the BBC’s show on The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo - 2026: A Call To Gather behind the narrator’s voice.
The Rhenigidale Reel was written by Jane a number of years ago and featured on Face The West’s Teine album. As well as using the tune itself, Tattoo organisers also chose to use Face The West’s arrangements for the tune, which Face The West maestro Keith Morrison called “a very proud moment”.
It is, however, not the first moment the Tattoo’s musical directors have taken their lead from the electro-celtic band from Lewis, led by Keith who also runs the Wee Studio, Wee Studio Records and the new Stornoway Music Development Centre.
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo sells out months in advance and this year’s spectacular ran from 6 to 29 August, with Jane’s tune played every night as part of the set.
Her composition was played by the massed pipes and drums, backed by an orchestra, and accompanied by the Highland dancers.
Jane told welovestornoway she could not believe it until she heard it with her own ears.
“I had total imposter syndrome the whole weekend, to be honest with you,” she said.
“I thought, ‘there’s no way they’re going to play my tune…’
“Despite being invited down to hear it, I was like, ‘no way’. But they did and the pipe band played it and the dancers danced beautifully to it. They did a whole choreography.”
The Rhenigidale Reel was the last tune of the set “and it was meant to be a kind of celebration”. Jane described this as “mad, absolutely mad”.
Jane was invited to the Tattoo for its closing night, Saturday 27 August, and chose to have her mum as her guest.
They were invited to watch from the Royal Gallery and received “total VIP treatment”.
There was a strict dress code, with no trainers allowed, and it stipulated national dress, business attire or formal wear.
In honour of the occasion, Jane got herself “a new pair of tartan briogais (trousers)” and wore a Harris Tweed jacket belonging to her mum.
“It was wild,” she said. “We were sat up there, best view of the thing and it was great.”
Organisers of the Tattoo had got in touch with Jane a few months ago to ask permission to use the tune, which she readily agreed to. “I was like, ‘yeah, fire on’… and then I didn’t really hear much after that. I mean, of course, why would I have to?"
She was starting to think “och, they’re probably not going to use it” and heard nothing more until she received the invitation to come and hear it live.
Hearing it live at the Tattoo was “absolutely wild” and special for Betty too.
“She was so proud. The whole experience just made us laugh a wee bit. We were a bit giggly and then, yeah, she cried when they actually played it. She was just dead proud. It was so nice.”
Having your music featured at the Tattoo is, Jane said, “one of the highest privileges as someone who writes tunes”.
She was delighted to have it picked up – and thanked Keith Morrison for that because he chose to record it for Face The West and put the arrangement to it.
“It wouldn’t be out there in the world if Keith hadn’t kindly chosen to use the tune in the Face the West album.”
The tune itself was written years ago and inspired by the Postman’s Path in Harris, between Urgha and Rhenigidale.
Jane was walking the path one day with husband Keith and some friends and was struck by the story of the postie who would walk the hilly route to deliver mail to the people of Rhenigidale.
“The yarn of the postman’s walk is such a cool story down there and I thought ‘Rhenigidale’ sounds good with the word ‘reel’ so that’s what I named it.”
She described the story of the postman walking over the hill as “amazing”, adding: “That is so Hebridean, that story. To be so hardy, to do that, and to do that for something that was kind of like a small thing to do, but it wasn’t. It was a big thing to do and I just thought it was really cool – so that’s where the tune came from.”
Keith said they were “over the moon” to hear the tune played at the Tattoo, in Face the West style.
He said the Tattoo had used some Face The West arrangements the previous year too, “for tunes that we play that don’t belong to us”. When the organisers had sought permission to do that, Keith was more than happy to “give them our blessing”.
He said: “To be repeatedly involved in something prestigious and super cool like that is great. It’s heartwarming. It’s what it’s all about. Making music and everybody playing everything and getting the craic.
