Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 26 on 21/04/2006.

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Sport of the Celts

Shinty is a hard uncompromising sport but great to watch. As the new season gets under way, Alex Mead gives it some stick

It might not have the worldwide fame of golf or the Olympic gold-medal winning capability of curling, but shinty is truly one of the most Scottish sports you’ll ever find.

Going back to Gaelic Scotland and even the earlier Celtic race, shinty or camanachd – to give it its proper Gaelic title – had its beginnings roughly 2,000 years ago.

But before we get into that, it’s worth mentioning – for the uninitiated – what shinty actually is.

Played predominantly in the west and the Highlands of Scotland, shinty looks at first glance like a cross between a more physical version of hockey and La Crosse. The aim of the game, as with most sports, is to score in the opponent’s goal with the aid of the caman (i.e. the stick).

Only the goalkeeper is allowed to handle the ball and, unlike its Irish cousin hurling, you can’t kick the ball either.

There are of course a lot more rules, but these are the basics and more than enough to be going on with.

Although it’s been ‘in development for 2,000 years,’ the Camanachd Association – the sport’s governing body – was formed in 1893 because there were so many different interpretations of the sport that some basic rules needed to be founded.

And from that formation came the leagues and structures that are now in place today – an eight team Premier division feeding down into national and then regional leagues.

Needless to say, before that, things were a bit different.

“It would have been territorial but as it developed into the 19th century .....

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By Alex Mead

Section : Scotland Sport

Page number : 58