Knotty

It involves a stick (a "knotty"), which can be almost any form of wooden implement, and a cork fishing float as ball with varying sizes of players.

Local history books suggest knotty was invented by the fishing wives of Lybster – once one of the Europe's busiest herring ports – to help keep their men sober when they were ashore.

The sport draws from the same prevalence of stick-ball games throughout Scotland at that time, many of which became codified into shinty in other areas.

With the rundown of the industry in the late 19th century, knotty fell into abeyance[citation needed] until local hotelier, Bert Mowat, found the rules for the game in an old Gaelic bible.

[1] The Knotty World Championship takes place in Lybster every year, Sinclair Bay Hotel of Keiss being 2006 champions.