The Queen’s piper recalled the moment the wind lifted his kilt up in front of Her Majesty

The Queen’s personal piper accidentally revealed he was a “true Scot” when the wind lifted his kilt for her, he said yesterday.

Scott Methven, 48, said he was “briefly exposed” playing the bagpipes on a windy morning outside Windsor Castle and said the Queen later joked about the incident.

“On a very windy morning, while I was playing in Windsor Castle, my kilt was blown up and like a ‘true Scot’ I was briefly exposed,” said Mr. Methven in The Spectator magazine.

When he returned to the castle, one of the Queen’s assistants joked about the incident.

He added: “Later, as I accompanied Her Majesty, she asked me if it had been a particularly cold morning.”

The former pipe major was the Queen’s personal piper from 2015 to 2019, playing outside her window every day at 9am in the various palaces as part of the Royal Household.

He said: ‘Not only was the Queen disarmingly quick-witted and someone who liked to joke, but she was also caring and devoted to her staff.’

He left the military after 25 years in 2019 and now teaches bagpipes.

Methven said: ‘Not only was the Queen disarmingly quick-witted and someone who liked to joke, but she was also caring and devoted to her staff.

“Working with her has allowed me to get to know her sense of humor and the ease with which she spoke to everyone.

“On my first day at the post, when I was feeling a little nervous, Her Majesty asked me if I was settling down.

Methven said he was ‘briefly exposed’ while playing the bagpipes on a windy morning outside Windsor Castle and said the Queen later joked about the incident

“I replied that I got lost in the palace and she laughed and said she always got lost with Princess Margaret when they were children.”

The Queen, who was famously about six feet tall, also joked about Mr Methven’s height.

He said, “She once joked that I was the first bagpiper to hold the pole that she didn’t have to look up to—a jibe at my six-foot height.”

Mr Methven was the 15th Queen’s Piper, having been created by Queen Victoria in 1843, after enjoying the sound of the bagpipes while on holiday at Taymouth Castle.

He has previously spoken of the Queen’s personal kindness to him and his family after his wife Morven was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The couple’s children were allowed to stay at Balmoral Castle and were cared for by royal nannies, while Mr Methven looked after his wife in hospital, and his five-year-old son Fearghas (corr) played with Prince George.

Mr Methven was the 15th Queen’s Piper, having been created by Queen Victoria in 1843, after enjoying the sound of the bagpipes while on holiday at Taymouth Castle

The Queen also sent a basket of strawberries and muffins to the nurses on duty, and Mr Methven said his son had often spoken to the Duke of Edinburgh about his love of red squirrels.

After his wife’s diagnosis, he said the Queen had told him to put “family first.”

He said, ‘I stood by the Queen and she said, ‘If you are not here in the morning and you are not playing the bagpipes, then I know you are gone. Don’t wait to ask someone, just go home when your family needs you, because it’s family first.”’

He added: “She grabbed my arm again and said, ‘You know Pipes, if anyone has a problem with that, tell me I said it was okay to go’.”

Mr Methven served in Northern Ireland and made two tours of Afghanistan before leaving the army in 2019 and now teaches bagpipes.