Missing Shield found after 71 years

One of the longest running mysteries in the history of the Inverness Highland Games is over. The Inverness Merchants Shield, which was thought to have been lost forever, has been discovered in Aberdeen and will return to the Highland Capital for the first time in over 71 years later this week. 

Purchased by the Inverness Shopkeepers Association in 1936 for £50, the Inverness Merchants Shield was awarded at the Northern Meeting Games held in 1938 and disappeared in the confusion surrounding the postponement of the Games in August 1939 and the outbreak of World War 2.

News that the Shield had been located in Aberdeen was passed to Provost Jimmy Gray by the Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Florence Allen who will be making a special journey to Inverness on Thursday to bring the trophy home.

Surprisingly the Shield has been slightly busier than Inverness officials might have been expected in its absence having apparently been offered as a prize at the Aberdeen Highland Games in the post War years and also having been on display at the Piping Museum in Glasgow for a while.

Currently valued at over £1000, it has been decided that the Shield will be donated to the Inverness Highland Games Committee by the Inverness Business Improvement District on behalf of the Shopkeepers currently based in Inverness.

Inverness Highland Games Committee Chairman Angus Dick said: “We are delighted to be reunited with this historic trophy which has reappeared just in time for the return of our Games to Northern Meeting Park in July. We are planning to invite the Convenor of the Northern Meeting Society to award it to the best band taking part in the Armed Forces Day Parade on Games day, but unlike our predecessors in 1938, we are planning to ensure that the trophy is safely locked up in Inverness Museum at the end of the day.”

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