Fort William Shinty Club

Fort William Shinty Club is a shinty club from Fort William, Lochaber, Scotland. The first team are the present Camanachd Cup holders having won it four times in succession, the latest being 2010 but were knocked out in the second round in 2011. The club also has a second team and a vibrant youth system.

The club plays in the heart of the town at An Aird which is an area often under threat from development.

History

Fort William was officially constituted in 1893 but the club slowly emerged into the sport and only entered the Camanachd Cup in 1912. The club folded on occasion in the 1900s and 1920s and had very little success except a Camanachd Cup semi final in 1937 against Oban Celtic and a sprinkling of junior cups.

Unfortunately for the club, the rise of Fort William as a force in shinty coincided with the 20 year dominance of Kingussie. However, the club heralded its arrival as a major force by winning the Macaulay Cup in 1991 and reaching the semi final of the Camanachd the same year then finally joining the ranks of clubs who have won the blue riband event in 1992, beating Kingussie 1-0 in Glasgow.

Fort continued to perform well and reached the final in 1994 where they lost to Kyles Athletic. The new millennium saw Fort William habitually come in second behind the unstoppable Kingussie team and began to be seen as the team most likely to break the Badenoch dominance.

Kingussie's Dominance Broken

The Fort reappeared in the Camanachd Cup Final in 2003 but was...
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