A handcrafted leather ball from 1907 used in a mass street game played annually in Orkney since medieval times is being sold by Lyon & Turnbull on Wednesday 19th August.
The Kirkwall Ba’ Game involves two rival teams, the Uppies and the Doonies, battling to get the ball to their respective goals at opposite ends of the town.
Starting from underneath the steeple at St Magnus Cathedral, the game begins when the ba’ is thrown up into the air and a scrum of hundreds of players then pass, push, kick, carry, or even smuggle it under clothing to win the title.
The Christmas Day ball being auctioned in Lyon & Turnbull’s two-day Scotland Collected sale is a Youths' Ba’ - this was a separate, short-lived version of the game played from 1892 until 1910.
Awarded to Pat Gunn from the Uppies, the ba’ is valued at between between £300-£500 and has already attracted a pre-auction bid of £1000.
It formed part of the collection of the late John Manson Robertson (1929-2015), a prominent Scottish businessman and authority on The Ba’, who won the trophy himself on New Year’s Day in 1966.
A copy of Robertson’s book on the game, The Kirkwall Ba’, Between Water and the Wall, is being sold along with the Ba’, which is mounted on a wooden plinth.
According to Kirkwall Ba’ tradition, the Uppies, originally made up of men born south of the Cathedral, must touch the Ba’ against a wall called Mackinson’s Corner, opposite the Catholic Church, to score.
Doonies from north of the Cathedral towards the sea must fully submerge the Ba’ in the water at Kirkwall Harbour.
Today team members play on the side of their descendants and the winner, chosen by the victorious side, is given the Ba’ to display in their home.
Hundreds turn out to watch the spectacle which takes place twice a year on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. There are no referees, rules or time limit. The shortest game lasted for just four minutes on Christmas Day 1952; the longest for seven hours on New Year’s Day 1975.
Jamie Russell for Lyon & Turnbull said:
“This is a really fun lot but also one which has huge significance given the history of the game and the provenance of the piece.
“As you might imagine, we don’t come across a Kirkwall Ba’ very often but its popularity is evidenced by the fact that someone has already bid double its estimated value prior to the auction getting underway.
“Let’s hope we’re on a roll with it!”
