Hamish, you're rockin' that chanter!
I still need to buy one... been spending my money on other things (oh... bike parts).

The pics are really neat. I especially liked the the pics from the middle east. It's often easy to forget that pipes are a pretty widely spread instrument, with many design variations... and pretty much all of them sound neat.
From some readings, it is believed that bagpipes were originally Roman... which would explain why they are found throughout so many nations.
I think there was a website... called Hot Pipes that had a CD of pipe music from around the world... I'll have to google it, but it is something worth checking out.