A BAGPIPER from Cove, whose videos of extreme bagpiping have been viewed hundreds of times on social media, has officially opened a new thrill-seeking attraction in the Highlands.

Roddy Garden, 49, a member of the Helensburgh Clan Colquhoun Pipe Band, was asked to open the new Highland Swing, which goes from one bank of the River Garry in Perthshire to the other.

A video of Roddy's latest extreme exploit has been viewed more than 141,000 times.

Roddy's unique challenges began when he was on holiday with his girlfriend in Durness and someone told them there was a zipline.

The pair decided to give it a shot and Roddy wondered if he would be able to play the bagpipes so gave it a go.

Roddy told the Advertiser: "Once I had done that and spoke to my friends, we all decided that I should try at bungee jump while playing, so I went on the internet and found the Highland Fling bungee and emailed them to ask them if they would allow me to do it.

"They agreed and I went up and did that and had a good laugh."

Thanks to a video of his bungee jump, the team at Highland Fling Bungee contacted Roddy to see if he would officially open their new Highland Swing.

After accepting, Roddy was launched over a gorge half the length of a football pitch last Thursday.

Describing his 15m free-fall then arcing swing as ‘awesome’, Roddy said: "I thought I would be really nervous.

“I’d seen videos of people doing these swings before, but not as high as this one.

“When the platform went back and I was suspended in the air with just my pipes, I realised the distance I was going to be travelling, but I didn’t have time to think too much about it before the crew pulled the cord and I was off across the gorge.

“I had decided beforehand to stick to Scotland The Brave because I didn’t know if I’d be losing the will to live and I wanted my fingers to keep working so I could keep the tune.

"It was difficult during the free-fall. But it was great - awesome.

"There was a good crowd there and they all had a good laugh at it too. It was even one of the jumper's birthday and I played happy birthday on my pies as she was dropped."

“I met someone at the Cowal Games recently, who recognised me off the YouTube videos, and he joked that he knew a team of psychiatrists that would like to speak to me!"

Roddy started to learn to play the bagpipes at the age of 11, but the class only lasted a year and it wasn't until he was 25 years old that he picked it back up playing with the Helensburgh clan Colquhoun Pipe Band.

Roddy says he would now like to tackle these sort of challenges for charity and has a few ideas in the pipeline but is shocked at how well the videos have done on Facebook.

"A lot of folk think I'm stone mad," he said, "but it's all worth it when I see people having a good laugh at it all.

"I've had a lot of help from Frazer Smith, a friend of mine, with trying to engineer how to do them all. We can't believe how much people are enjoying them."

Murray Trail, one of the founding partners of Highland Fling Bungee, said: “Roddy did his bungee jump with us at Killiecrankie. He is real character, up for anything with his pipes, and it was great to see him have a go at the swing as well.

“Everyone does these things for different reasons, whether it is for charity, to be a daredevil or to achieve something unique like Roddy.

"What unites them is the euphoria they feel afterwards because the speed going through that arc is incredible.”