The man known as the Voice of Shinty is to be awarded an honorary degree by Aberdeen University.
Dr Hugh Dan MacLennan, a leading authority on the game, is retiring after 40 years working with the BBC.
He graduated from Aberdeen 25 years ago.
He will receive an honorary doctorate on November 22. After that, he will be delivering a talk on an historic shinty trophy and book.
The Littlejohn Trophy and Album of Shinty are held by the university’s special collections. They will be on display ahead of the talk in the Elphinstone Institute.
Shinty’s ‘lost’ work of art to go on display
Dr MacLennan will also present a copy of the book to Glasgow University.
The story starts five years ago, when the book was discovered behind a wardrobe in the Black Isle.
The Littlejohn Album contains details of the origins of the game and terminology still used today.
Alexander Littlejohn, a Londoner of Scottish origins, donated the Littlejohn of Invercharron Challenge Vase to Aberdeen University in 1905.
It was to be used for competition with other universities in Glasgow, St Andrews and Edinburgh.
Its valuable contents include the historical description of shinty and its Gaelic vocabulary by the famous scholar Alexander MacBain of Inverness.
It includes ‘caman’, the name for the shinty club, derived from ‘cam’, or crooked, a reference to the shape of the stick.
A facsimile copy of the album is held by the Gaelic Society Inverness and other copies were presented to the other ancient universities.
However, Glasgow University’s version went missing for several years until 2018.
Following a talk he delivered to the Royal Celtic Society (RCS) which referenced the ‘lost’ Littlejohn Album, Dr MacLennan was contacted by a woman from the Black Isle.
Her late husband, who was a sports fan primarily interested in cricket, bought a copy of the album at a sale in Dingwall.
She found the book behind a wardrobe and didn’t know what it was about, nor what to do with it.
Book will be available for research
Dr MacLennan said: “The Littlejohn of Invercharron trophy and album are works of national significance and not just in sporting terms.
“They are significant national assets.
“The album is a work of art which merits much closer inspection and its contents are important at many levels – the artwork, the historical content and the calligraphy.
“I regard the trophy and the album as the most precious artefacts I have worked with over the years. I hold them as of equal significance to the Camanachd Cup.
“They are a fine example of intelligentsia meeting philanthropy.”
The honorary degree will recognise Dr MacLennan career as a writer, broadcaster and shinty historian.
He is also known to football, rugby and curling fans who follow his commentary in Gaelic.
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