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London Camanachd

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Shinty has always had it's strongest following in the Highlands of Scotland but many teams were formed in the more southern regions of Scotland over the years. To the shinty world, south indicates, south of the highland area as the red areas on the adjacent map show, but has never included the south of Scotland in geographical terms!

Many worthy champions have been based in the south area, such as Kyles Athletic, Oban Celtic and Oban Camanachd, Glasgow Mid Argyll and Ballachulish.

Shinty has never been recognised or played to any great extent, out with these areas, with the exception of, London Camanachd. This club was formed in 1894 through the amalgamation of London Northern Counties shinty club and the London Scots shinty club. Both these clubs were made up of ex patriot Scots along with some English converts to the game. The political climate in the latter part of the last century, brought many Scots to the south of England with the British army and no doubt this was the reason that these teams were formed.

London Camanachd continued to host shinty matches on and off until the early 1930's. They entered the Camanachd Cup in 1896 but unfortunately could not travel to play the match.

The tie was awarded to their opponents Glasgow Cowal, another team which has long since disappeared. London Camanachd were reformed in 1982, by enthusiasts of the game and competed in some cup competitions up to the early nineties. They won their first official trophy in 1985, The Skeabost Horn and distinguished themselves by reaching the last eight of the Camanachd Cup in 1984, eventually losing to Skye Camanachd.
Between the years of 1873 and 1915 regular play was held on Wimbledon Common in London and this is a photograph taken on one of those occasions (possibly 1904). The handwriting on the back of the photograph is severed in mid sentence, as is shown by the illustration. The names of Colin Chisholm and James McDonald appear and they are shown to be from the Strathglass area (north of Loch Ness, close to Glenurquhart). It looks very much like a postcard of that era and we know that producing one's own photograph, then producing a postcard was very popular at the start of this Century.

The condition of the photograph is very poor and it has sustained a lot of damage to the left hand side. This edge has been torn off at some stage and I have done my best to tidy up the water damage and heavy fold marks. I might estimate that a further three or four people may be missing from the left side of the print.
I came across the photograph a few years ago but he could not shed any light on the names of the figures in the photograph. maybe you will!
If anyone would like to see this photograph in more detail, then visit again, as I will upload a more detailed version via a link from here.

© D M D 2000