Sharing shinty memories
Oban Heritage Hunters’s new exhibition is sharing Shinty Memories.
The two-month exhibition, open now in the Silver Birch Gallery at The Rockfield Centre daily until Sunday June 25, from 10am to 4pm, is a follow-up and extension to the group’s one-day only Macauley Cup exhibition, held at the centre in August 2022 and sponsored by The Oban Times.
The history project’s Eleanor MacKinnon said: “This is a bigger exhibition now in the actual gallery space. We’ve used photos from our archives, we’ve had new material handed in, we’ve got stories and we’ve been out making oral recordings of those who have played on the shinty field.
“Quite a few of the guys in the group are ex-shinty players and they were very keen to redo and extend on The Macauley Cup exhibition we held earlier.
“It’s a way of getting Oban’s shinty story out there. Shinty is another aspect of the town’s social history that we’ve been gathering at the Heritage Hunters.
“The sport’s been in our area a long time and it’s the passion and enthusiasm of the people that keep it going – and that has not changed. There are still many shinty families – great-grandads, grandads, dads and sons and brothers,” said Eleanor. Some of the material on show belongs to a collection gifted to The Rockfield Centre by the widow of Donald Skinner, whose ancestors were also among the town’s earliest shinty players.
Derek Keir, CEO of the Camanachd Association, was one of the first visitors to the exhibition. He said: “It’s amazing the work that has been put into the exhibition. The stories being told are what shinty is all about. It’s given me lots of ideas to take back to the association.”
Alan Hill secured the loan of the Glasgow Celtic Society Cup to go on display. It was first played for in 1979 and will next be played for on the last Saturday of June this year.
Some of the trophies on display have not been competed for in quite a while – one of them is the Glencruitten Challenge Cup, found in the former Woodside pub in Tweedale Street. There are also a host of medals won by three Forgrieve brothers from Oban between the 1940s and 1960s.
These and the trophies and other treasures will only be on display for the first and last week of the exhibition.
Alfie McKenzie, another of the Heritage Hunters, remembers being 12 when Oban Celtic took on Newtonmore at Mossfield in the Camanachd Cup final and were victorious.
You can see some of the photographs from that memorable day on show at the exhibition.
Alfie remembers hundreds and hundreds of people lining the streets from Glencruitten down Miller Road and into the town, cheering on their winning team: “Seeing the pictures brings it all back,” he said.
Fellow Heritage Hunter Archie MacDougall played shinty for 18 years before retiring and becoming a coach for Lochside Rovers. His daughter Fiona MacDougall and her friend Siobhan Rydings were the founders of ladies shinty in Oban, calling themselves Camencheros.
Alfie said: “We got such a lot of interest from the first shinty exhibition last year, with more material coming in. There’s enough to put on a third show, I’m sure!”