Neff Brothers -Soundpost & Bridle - This, their first CD, is 50/50 UPs and fiddle, but this particular track (12) is all fiddle. Its not a bad CD. I would suggest avoiding their second CD, Each Other’s Shadow.
djm
I’ve found the octave jumps (2nd octave to 1st) to be difficult, yes. Today, I closed down my reed a bit and messed about with the tune briefly. With an “easy” reed setting I was able to alternate between octaves fairly well, but I was doing it at a dead slow pace. It’s going to be a real challenge to get this up to a decent tempo and still play cleanly. I’m going to ask some of the St. Louis Tionol instructors about this next month.
I’ve looked on the Willow cd..no Gravel Walk 
It’s been a while since I heard that Neff Bros. CD, but I too recall that the track with “Gravel Walk” was a solo fiddle bit.
Not to bring addition annoyance on Bill, but I also initially learnt this one on Highland pipes…As I recall, it was one of the first reels I was taught, and my teacher taught me all four parts (the sheet music was adapted from a fiddle setting)…I think this may have also been my introduction to the dreaded C natural…Anyway, owing to its popularity with pipe bands and also Scottish fiddle players’ love of all things Donegal, it’s a VERY common session tune in Scotland.
I’ve never heard of any uilleann pipers playing it, although I’m sure there are some that do…I’ll bet Robbie Hannan could make something pretty jaw-dropping out of it and it wouldn’t surprise me if he has done already. For the time being though, I’ll leave this one to the professionals.
I checked my Mikie Smyth CD and the Gravel Walk is not on there. Sorry
Try going up from the 1st octave A to the 2nd octave a using a 2nd octave e gracenote as you increase the bag pressure. it works on some chanters, especially flat chanters. just smack that ring finger down and squeeze!
That gives a nice emphatic lift if you can make it work. From then on you can play full staccato like in the second part of the Harvest Home.
The last hard transition is c → a for which you can try a second octave f gracenote
Ross
If you’re talking about the B part:
A2 .aA .gA .fA | (3A{B}A.A .eA (3cBA GB | A2 .aA .gA .f.A | BcdcBAGB |!
A2 .aA .gA .fA | (3A{B}A.A .eA (3cBA GB | ABcd efga | gedc BAGB ||
for my part, I don’t find it at all difficult to get from 1st octave A to 2nd octave a. It’s getting back down again from the 2nd octave a to first octave A that gives me fits. So far, I haven’t found a satisfactory technique for backing off the bag pressure and venting in order to hit that pedal note A accurately every time. I suppose one could get by by playing A2 .az .gz .fz |. Perhaps the missing notes wouldn’t be too terribly noticeable when the tune is played at a reasonable tempo.
I feel a new project coming on …
for my part, I don’t find it at all difficult to get from 1st octave A to 2nd octave a. It’s getting back down again from the 2nd octave a to first octave A that gives me fits
My chanter won’t play high a staccato, so all I have to do to get from a → A is stop the flow after the a. Another thing you can try is a high c gracenote - that’s also good for losing the octave
Ross
This is primarily a fiddle tune. I don’t know that there is any law that says you have to play it note-for-note as written. What if you just pop the high a’s? At speed, there would be no time to come back down to the “pedal” A.
As pipers, it is incumbent upon us to make a tune our own, i.e. a piping tune … or not. 
djm
Ah, there’s the rub! Fiddle used to be my main instrument before taking up the pipes and I still retain a lot of fiddle settings in my mind even though I’m a better piper than a fiddler these days. I’m fairly certain that the fiddle influence strongly colors my piping style and infrequent contact with other pipers does little to offset that inclination to pipe like a fiddle player. Lord Gordon’s, anyone?
Same here, although, I find that I am often resurrecting old fiddle tunes I used to play, and setting them to the pipes… although, Midnight on the Water and The Ashoken Farwell still sound better to me on the fiddle. 
… must be the Jay Unger influence. 
Heh, heh! I set Ashoken Farewell in the key of G and play it on the pipes. Easy peasy with c natural and f natural keys. I get a perverse sense of pleasure watching fiddlers’ faces when they realize it’s in the wrong key. Satisfying payback for those session tunes that have those unavailable notes on the 4th string.
You, sir, are a delightfully evil man. Good on you.
From a stictly note-based perspective, you can always drop this puppy a couple of semitones. It sounds much better against the drones in G dorian, but, oh, those octave jumps over a B!
X:1
T:Gravel Walk, The
R:Reel
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=210
K:Gdor
G2.dG (3BAG .dG | {A}G2.dG AGFA | G2.dG (3ABc de | f2{g}f dcAFA :|!
G2 .gG .fG .eG | (3G{A}G.G .dG (3BAG FA | G2 .gG .fG .e.G | ABcBAGFA |!
G2 .gG .fG .eG | (3G{A}G.G .dG (3BAG FA | GABc defg | fdcB AGFA ||
BGAF G2 GA | BA.Gc cAFc | BGAF G2 .ge | f2{g}fd cAFA |!
(3BAGAF G2 GA | BA.Gc cAFc | BGAF G2 .ge | f2{g}fd cAFA ||!
B2 .fB .gB .fB | {c}B2 cBAGFA | B2 .fB .gB .fg | fdcB AGFA |!
B2 .fB .gB .fB | (3B{c}B.B cBAGFA | GABc defg | fdcBAGFA 
G4 ||
djm
Wow! That’s a lot of half-holing or key smashing there!
Perfect compromise - play it in A dorian as originally written on a Cnat chanter over D drones. Hee hee hee!
djm
That’s a great idea! You could do Julia Delaney ( the tune ) with that set up as well.