This photo has everything: a penguin, a kilted Scotsman and the pipes.

This photo is most famous after going viral when a cheeky person edited the caption of it on Wikipedia to, ‘Piper Kerr (right), a member of the Scottish National Antarctic Expeditions, plays the bagpipes for an indifferent penguin, March 1904.’

Today the caption is much more staid and doesn’t mention that the ‘indifference’ of the penguin may be due to being tied to the piper’s foot (apparently part of an experiment to see how the bird would react to the pipes – which looks more heroic than most people’s would be).

What is lost in the fun is the story of how the piper ended up there. The Scottish Antarctic Expedition of 1902-04 was the cause of this adventure, led by William Speirs Bruce. In 2004, to mark the 100th anniversary of the expedition a set of Scottish country dances were create, called the Scotia Suite, including one called The Piper and the Penguin.

A brief tale of the expedition and the dance is told is video from The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.

There can few better ways to celebrate St Andrew’s Day – find some friends and get dancing!