Meet Scotland's last full-time shinty stick maker
Alan MacPherson was a top player in the ancient game - and now he also has the pressures of keeping it alive.
He is Scotland’s only full-time maker of camans - or shinty sticks - and his company Tanera Camans makes 1,200-1,400 sticks a year.
That is around 80 per cent of the entire output in Scotland - others make them but he is the country's remaining full timer.
Shinty originated around 2000 years ago, and is played in teams, with players using camans to play a ball into goals on either side of the pitch.
It was listed as a critically endangered art by the Heritage Crafts Association in 2019 and was at risk of dying out altogether.
Alan, 43, began crafting shinty sticks in 2007 as a hobby - and in 2014, the former joiner made the life-changing decision to purchase Tanera Camans and turn his passion into a full-time career.
Shinty stick maker Alan has described how important he believes the craft to be to Scotland's young people - after growing up involved in the sport himself.
"I loved shinty from a young age," said Alan.
"I was brought up in a shinty village, and the house I lived in was right next to the shinty pitch.
"Shinty was part of our every day life. I played it in school, and I continued into my adulthood.
"In 2007, I started experimenting with making shinty sticks, and I started full-time in 2014, when I bought over Tanera Camens.
"At the time, it was a seasonal job, so only when the shinty was on between March and October.
"I was a joiner by trade, so I had to go back on the building site for the other months of the year.
"After a couple of years of doing that, it became a full-time job.
"It was a hard change - I left the safety of an industry I'd been in for years to going into the unknown.
"It was a big step for myself and my family and it has been difficult - but it's been ten years now and things are hopefully going in the right direction."
Alan, who makes around 30 camans per week, is passionate about the sport, and runs a sister business named Shinty World, which he says helps keep the sticks affordable.
He spends his mornings dealing with orders, and responding to enquiries from Tanera Camans and Shinty World before heading to his workshop every afternoon.
With only one other staff member involved in crafting the camans, Alan often works long days - but his passion for the sport of shinty, and desire to keep the sport alive pushes him through.
"It's a 24/7 job - it can be long hours for sure," he said.
"The challenge is that you're making a hand-crafted product in a world where everything is mass produced.
"I think people forget the work that goes into a hand-crafted product. It's not something you can click your fingers and get the next day.
"Keeping the prices low is important for the development of the sport.
"Part of the reason I'm doing this is my love for the game, and I want to see the sport flourish.
"If I price kids out of the sport, people aren't going to get into it.
"It's a fine line between me trying to do the best for the sport and trying to survive at the same time."
Alan believes that shinty is an important part of Scotland's heritage, and says his drive to continue the craft comes from his own experiences with the sport growing up.
He hopes to continue encouraging young people to start playing shinty - and hopes that the art of caman crafting can continue on.
"We're doing our best to preserve the craft," he said.
"We're supporting local teams and investing back into the sport as well.
"It's a very difficult business - other companies have discontinued in the last few weeks, so we are one of the last places doing this.
"As a kid, I saw the benefits shinty had to me.
"Shinty is a sport where there's no discrimination.
"It doesn't matter what shape or size you are - there's always a place for you within a shinty team.
"Growing up with that helped me through a lot of struggles in my life - and I want kids to be able to have that as well."
