The border pipes are a type of bagpipe related to the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe. It is perhaps confusable with the Scottish smallpipe, although it is a quite different and much older instrument. Although most modern Border pipes are closely modelled on similar historic instruments, the modern Scottish smallpipes are a modern reinvention, inspired by historic instruments but largely based on Northumbrian smallpipes in their construction.

The name, which is modern, refers to the Anglo-Scottish Border region, where the instrument was once common, so much so that many towns there used to maintain a piper. The instrument was found much more widely than this, however; it was noted as far north as Aberdeenshire, south of the Border in Northumberland and elsewhere in the north of England. Indeed, some late 17th-century paintings, such as a tavern scene by Egbert van Heemskerck, probably from south-eastern England, show musicians playing such instruments. Other names have been used for the instrument: Lowland pipes and reel pipes in Scotland, and half-long pipes in Northumberland and Durham. However, the term reel pipes historically refers to instruments similar to Highland pipes, but primarily intended for indoor use.

While the instrument had been widespread in the 18th century, by the late 19th century it was no longer played. There was an attempted revival in north-east England in the 1920s and new instruments were created for Newcastle Royal Grammar School, Durham University OTC, and Northumberland Boy Scouts. The term half-long pipes is now used to refer specifically to surviving Northumbrian examples from this period; these were in part modelled on an 18th-century set which had belonged to Muckle Jock Milburn, and is now in the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum; however, they were given a different drone configuration.

The instrument consists of a chanter which plays the melody, drones which play a constant unchanging harmony, a bag which holds the air to blow drones and chanter, and a set of bellows to supply air to the bag. An early photograph from Northumberland, c. 1859, shows the instrument well.

The instrument has a conical-bored chanter, in contrast to the cylindrically-bored Scottish smallpipe. The modern instruments are louder than the Scottish smallpipe, though not as loud as the Great Highland Bagpipe; they blend well with stringed instruments.

The chanter has a thumb hole and seven finger-holes. The compass of the chanter is nine notes, from G to a, though a few higher notes, typically b, c', and c#', are obtainable on some chanters by 'pinching' and overblowing. As with the Highland pipes, the basic scale is a mixolydian scale on A. Some chanters can play chromatic notes however, and some old tunes, for instance Bold Wilkinson or Wat ye what I got late yestreen, suggest a dorian scale may also sometimes have been used, requiring a minor third instead of the major third of the mixolydian scale. This could be achieved by cross-fingering or half-holing. Pete Stewart has further argued that the existence of some G major tunes with a nine-note compass from G to a suggests that Border pipes formerly sounded a c natural, rather than c sharp; cross-fingering would then have been needed to sound a c sharp.

Some instruments are made in other pitches, typically B flat or G, rather than A.

The instrument has three cylindrically bored drones inserted into the pipebag by a common stock, typically tuned A, a, e', or A, a, a. In contrast, the Great Highland Bagpipe has each drone in a separate stock. The drone tuning A, e, a was used in half-long pipes in the early 20th century, and though still rare, sets are now beginning to be made with this drone tuning again.