However, these clubs are not always student teams in the strictest sense of the word, and have a long history of participation at national senior level.

Since the introduction of a summer season, only the Aberdeen University Shinty Club continues to play in the senior leagues, although Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews have all done so in the past.

Scottish universities have played a major role in shinty since the early days of the sport.

University of St Andrews became the fourth and final team to enter league shinty in the late 1960s.

The men's league is currently being led by a rejuvenated Glasgow side, with their female counterpart making a strong start to their season after many years playing under the banner of Strathclyde.

This club is the successor to the University of Aberdeen side which continued in the senior leagues with the advent of summer shinty in 2004.

They appeared in five straight Littlejohn finals equalling the record of bitter rivals Glasgow University.

The club have performed rapidly since formation winning the SUSF (now SSS University) league in 2006/07 and also reaching the final of the Littlejohn Vase tournament in 2006.

The women's team was established in 2013 and officially entered University Shinty league prior to 2014/15 season.

The UHI Millennium Institute, which is a collection of various colleges from across the Scottish Highlands and Islands entered a team in the University Shinty League for the first time in 2008.

By 2011 however UHI had folded, the difficulty in fulfilling midweek fixtures for a team made up mostly of tradesmen spread across the Highlands was a contributory factor.