Shinty

Cover detail from
'Shinty: A short
history of the ancient
highland game'.

Cover of 'A history of Strathglass Shinty Club'

Cover detail from
'A history of
Strathglass Shinty
Club'.

Shinty is a team game with ball and stick, played mainly in the Highlands of Scotland or by Highland migrants. This list includes a selection of the National Library of Scotland's books and serials about shinty, or with significant shinty content.

These books can be ordered through Library Search and viewed in the reading rooms at the Library. If individuals or small groups would like to see a selection of these titles, please contact us.

General titles

'British calendar customs: Scotland', by Mary Macleod Banks
— Contains a history and description of the game, along with a selection of references to shinty in other works: Vol.II, p111-116 [Library shelfmark: Lit.S.61]
'Constitution and rules of play, 1935-1936. Roll of honour of players killed in the Great War', Camanachd Association, 1935 [5.4150]
'Football, golf and shinty, hockey, polo, and curling', by Captain Rawdon Crawley [K.212.g.1(2)]
'Camanachd!: The story of shinty', by Roger Hutchinson [N3.205.4594L]
'Shinty: A short history of the ancient Highland game', John Ninian Macdonald [T.234.c]
'Not an orchid', by Hugh Dan MacLennan
— Inscribed by author [H8.95.647]
'Shinty dies hard: Scotland's national game. A re-assessment and re-definition with particular reference to its survival and development in the nineteenth century in Australia, Canada, England and Ireland', by Hugh Dan MacLennan [HP4.99.525]
'Handbook of hints on playing shinty, etc.', Schools' Camanachd Association, 1939 [5.862]
'Sport in the making of Celtic cultures', edited by Grant Jarive
— Includes an essay by Hugh Dan MacLennan: 'Shinty and the Celtic celebration of new year' [Q3.200.0881].

Regional and club histories

Records of the Camanachd Association, 1893-1989 [Acc.11384]
'The first hundred years: A short history of Inverness Shinty Club', by Hugh Barron [HP2.87.4438]
'A history of Strathglass Shinty Club', by Hugh Barron and John W Campbell [HP1.79.4938]
'The Hail: 2001-2011 — a decade of Northern California Camanachd', by Michael Ross Bentley [PB6.215.680/12]
'The caman is their pastime from the cradle to their graves: Shinty in Badenoch and Strathspey 1747-1939', by Rosemary Gibson [PB3.213.54/12]
'Oban united in sport: A pictorial record', by Alan Hill and Donald Skinner [PB5.209.137/9]
'The Kyles = (na Caol): A celebration of 100 years', by Iain Thorburn [H3.96.2342]
'Toss thine antlers, Caberfeidh: Celebrating 125 years', Strathpeffer, Ross and Cromarty, Caberfeidh Shinty Club [PB6.215.255/7].

Serials and yearbooks

'The Camanachd Association annual', Camanachd Association [HP.sm.562]
'Highland football and shinty' [HJ11.162]
'Highland football and sport' [DJ.l.322]
'Shinty world' [DJ.l.319(5)]
'Shinty yearbook' [HJ8.5952, DJ.m.3046(3), HP.la.57, P.sm.2331].

Fiction for adults

'Scotch on the rocks, or, The Camanachd Cup', by Roy McCormick [PB5.213.1388/3].

Fiction for children

'The shinty match', by Neil Beaton [PB5.214.124/4]
'The shinty boys', by Margaret Macpherson [NG.1649.d.2].

Contact us

Email Ian Scott — the Library's Sport, Leisure and Newspapers Curator — with any questions or comments about our sport collections.

Shinty in the Library's collections