Lovat Shinty Club is a

shinty Shinty ( gd, camanachd, iomain) is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, an ...

club from

Kiltarlity Kiltarlity ( gd, Cill Targhlain) is a small village in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is west of Inverness and south of Beauly, on the south bank of the Bruiach Burn. It has a population of under 1,000 people, and a local primary sch ...

Inverness-shire Inverness-shire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Nis) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Covering much of the Highlands and Outer Hebrides, it is Scotland's largest county, though one of the smallest in populatio ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

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The club was formed in 188

and has a healthy rivalry with near neighbours Beauly Shinty Club, Beauly. The club takes its name from the area within which it plays in and shared this name with the late

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

hero,

Lord Lovat Lord Lovat ( gd, Mac Shimidh) is a title of the rank Lord of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for Hugh Fraser, 1st Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser by summoning him to the Scottish Parliament as Lord Fraser of Lovat, altho ...

History

Founded in 1888, the club has never folded but did merge with Beauly Shinty Club, Beauly early in the 20th Century and won the

Camanachd Cup The Camanachd Association Challenge Cup known as the Camanachd Cup (or less commonly the Scottish Cup) is the premier competition in the sport of shinty. It is one of the five trophies considered to be part of the Grand Slam in the sport of shin ...

in 1912/13 as the combined team. After the first war, the team also reached the final in 1925. In 1953 was Lovat's finest hour, achieving the

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

, winning every single competitio

they entered at Senior and Junior level, they were the first club to ever achieve this feat. The same set of players had previously won the Celtic Society Cup which was a South District Competition in 1950 and 1951. BalgateShintyPitch2014LovatVShiel

Despite being close to Inverness, Lovat still maintain two strong teams due to a strong youth policy and the support of the local primary school. The club is always well represented at youth international level. The club hosts the traditional Lovat V Beauly New Year's Day match AKA the

Lovat Cup The Lovat Cup is a trophy in the sport of shinty contested annually at New Year by Beauly Shinty Club and Lovat Shinty Club. The trophy was first played for in 1904 and is very popula attracting the second largest crowfor a shinty fixture in Sco ...

every year. This game attracts the largest crowd for a shinty match outside of the

final. In November 2007, following Kinlochshiels' draw with Caberfeidh, Lovat became a Marine Harvest Premier Division Team. This was a massive achievement for the Kiltarlity side and was somewhat ahead of schedule given the very young age of the team. However, Lovat's 2008 season in the Premier Division was a hard campaign and the club was eventually relegated having been marooned at the bottom of the league for almost the whole season. The club's first team won North Division One again in 2009, this marked a successful season for the club where its second team had also reached the

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

and

Strathdearn Cup The Strathdearn Cup is a knock-out competition in the sport of shinty. The present holders are Lovat Shinty Club. It is played for by reserve-level teams from the North of Scotland, that is all teams playing in North Division Two and Three as wel ...

finals, losing to Fort William on both occasions. Lovat had a successful season in 2010, surviving in the Premier Division and seeing the second team again reach the finals of the Strathdearn and Sutherland. Again, the club faced the same team as opponents, playing Glenurquhart in both games. Lovat lost the Strathdearn but claimed the Sutherland live on BBC Alb

This victory was notable as it was held at the Eilan in Newtonmore, just down the road from The Dell (Kingussie), the Dell in Kingussie where Lovat had secured a rare point against

Kingussie Kingussie ( ; gd, Ceann a' Ghiùthsaich ) is a small town in the Badenoch and Strathspey ward of the Highland council area of Scotland. Historically in Inverness-shire, it lies beside the A9 road, although the old route of the A9 serves as the ...

earlier in the day. 2011 saw Lovat play well but never fully extricate themselves from relegation trouble until their final match of the season when a 3–2 win over Kilmallie secured Premier Division shinty for another year. James Gallacher & John MacRitchie stepped down from their roles as co-managers to be replaced by successful second-team manager Allan MacRa

Lovat achieved their highest league placing since their glory days winning the North Division One, with a third-place finish in the 2012 Premiership. On 15 June 2013 Lovat won their first major trophy since 1953 when they won the

MacTavish Cup The MacTavish Cup is a knock-out cup competition in the sport of shinty. It is competed for by senior teams from the North of Scotland district. It is one of the five trophies considered to be part of the Grand Slam in the sport of shinty. The cu ...

. They also secured a highest ever Premiership finish as runners-up to Newtonmore, and finished the season with the best defensive record in shinty. As well as tasting reserve success in the

. They retained the MacTavish Cup in 2014, reinforcing their position as the most successful side in the competition outside the Badenoch giants, Kingussie & Newtonmore, having won the trophy eight times in all. They finished the season in second but pushed Newtonmore much harder than in 2013. In 2015, Lovat had, by recent standards, a poor league season. However, under John Macritchie, they did lift the Camanachd cup, the biggest prize in the game. Kyles Athletic were the opponents this tie was played in Oban. It was a tight contest and finished 2-1 thanks to a Kevin Bartlett double and an Albert Smith medal winning performance from Stuart MacDonald. After this the club went on a run of making 3 of the next 5 Camanachd Cup finals. However on each occasion we’re defeated, twice by Newtonmore during their 4 titles in a row and once by Kinlochshiel on their first ever victory. The junior side had post Covid success winning the 2021 Strathdearn cup on penalties against Newtonmore after being 4-0 down in extra time.

Ladies team

Lovat established a ladies team in 2011, which plays in National Division Two. The area had a long tradition of girls playing shinty alongside boys until a certain age, with players leaving the sport. In the 2010s, local talent was corralled by Gillian Currie and Gemma MacKinnon, two Scotland internationalists who had settled in the area, into a first ever Lovat ladies team. Scotland internationalist youngster, Laura Gallacher, also returned to her home club after several years playing for Glengarr

The club was featured in the "Swags" documentary on BBC Alba, Christmas 2013.

Club staff

External links

Lovat Official Website
{{Shinty teams Shinty teams Sport in Highland (council area) 1888 establishments in Scotland Sports clubs established in 1888