The flow in a pipe of circular cross-section which is coiled in a circle is studied, the pressure gradient along the pipe varying sinusoidally in time with frequency . The radius of the pipe a is assumed small in relation to the radius of curvature of its axis R. Of special interest is the secondary flow generated by centrifugal effects in the plane of the cross-section of the pipe, and an asymptotic theory is developed for small values of the parameter = (2/a2), where is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. The secondary flow is found to be governed by a Reynolds number , where is a typical velocity along the axis of the pipe, and asymptotic theories are developed for both small and large values of this parameter. For sufficiently small values of it is found that the secondary flow in the interior of the pipe is in the opposite sense to that predicted for a steady pressure gradient, and this is verified qualitatively by an experiment described at the end of the paper.