IT’S a sport that’s as old as the hills and is frequently associated with strapping Highland and Islands lads chasing a cork and leather ball around the pitch with a wooden stick.

But the ancient game of shinty – camanachd – named after the stick, called a caman, is also popular amongst exiled Scots and others in London and elsewhere across England.

For more than 200 years, London Camanachd kept the sport and culture alive, apart from a couple of spells when the club folded but later reformed after it became established in 1874.

The club’s most recent rise from the ashes was in 2004 when it reformed with both women’s and men’s teams. London Camanachd is the current holder of the English League title.

In his book Camanachd: The Story of Shinty, Roger Hutchinson says it is “very likely” that sports involving hitting a ball with a curved stick were played around the world, including in Athens in the 5th century BC.

Shinty and hurling are said to have the same historical roots.

“Somewhere along the line of its development into the sport it is today, shinty was linked to training warriors,” says Hutchinson. “It was seen to be the perfect way to develop the skills that would be needed in battle.

“More relevant for 21st century society is the fact that shinty was also seen as the ideal activity through which to learn skills in team-working and to develop positive attitudes and behaviours that would serve people well in their lives. The present-day sport still holds these attributes as important.”

Hutchinson says in Scotland, shinty’s development as a sport was a community affair, and it was played by people from one community competing against a team from another.

“These competitive matches used to take place on particular festival days, such as New Year’s Day,” he says. At that time, there were no restrictions on how many people could be in each team and no written rules.

“The move to shinty becoming a more organised sport coincided with the emergence of the industrialised society and increased mobility amongst the people of Scotland.”

That mobility continues today, with an English shinty league and clubs as far away as Bristol and Cornwall.

Hutchinson said shinty historian Dr Hugh Dan MacLennan had shown that Scots emigrating to the industrial cities of England set up shinty clubs that also incorporated football, and that some – such as Chelsea and Manchester United – went on to become among the biggest football teams in the world.

“Shinty will continue to evolve as a sport,” he said.

“That’s the way to make sure it remains relevant and attractive to young people.”

London Camanachd last month launched an appeal on its website for new players for the coming season: “London has always been a team with a great blend of local and expatriate talent. As such London is again appealing to shinty players from Scotland or the south west who have now moved to the London area, as well as men or women who have never played before but would be interested to learn.

“London has a long tradition of taking shinty novices and teaching and training them in a safe environment before getting them into games at a local level and across England. Over the years several who learned the game from scratch have gone on to represent the English Shinty Association and play regularly for London in cup competitions and league matches.

“This relies on the fact that several London players have completed coaching courses and gained certification with the Camanachd Association over the years and as such the team has a great coaching base.”

“In the 1980s the club was refounded by two Irishmen, Sean Reid and Hugh O’Kane, which also saw London have it’s most successful period where they reached quarter final of the Camanachd Cup in 1984, won the Skeabost Horn in 1985 and the semis of the Balliemore and Bullough cups the same year.

“The club has continued through to the current day but is boosted by having four other newly founded teams in England for local competitions, who all combine to enter the Bullough Cup as English Shinty Association ... currently we rotate training about London, namely Clapham Common, Regents Park and Blackheath (where they played shinty back in the 1820s) and normally play at Greenford or Wormwood Scrubs depending on pitch availability.

“Pre-covid, we’ve sent teams to play Scottish six-a-side tournaments. Our squad numbers just over 20 but is spread from Glasgow and Dumfries, to across London and beyond with some players residing in France, Poland and Slovakia. In addition our own caman maker George Mead exports his camans to Scotland and has sent a couple to New Zealand.”