Historic Orkney Ba sold at auction for more than £3,000

A handcrafted leather ball used in a traditional mass street game in Orkney 119 years ago has sold for more than £3,000.

The Kirkwall Youths Ba was won by islander Pat Gunn on Christmas Day 1907.

The Ba game is believed to date back to medieval times and involves two rival teams - the Uppies and the Doonies - battling to get a ball to goals at opposite ends of Kirkwall.

Gunn's ball had been in the collection of Ba historian and author John D M Robertson before being sold by auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull.

With commission, the ball sold for £3,800. It had been valued at between £300-500 and auctioneers received a pre-auction bid of £1,500.

Gunn was playing for the Uppies when he won a youth Ba.

His great-grandniece Eileen Bevan attended the auction with members of her family.

She told BBC Radio Scotland's Around Orkney programme the auction was "exciting" and was hoping that a buyer from Orkney "would bring it home".

Hundreds of islanders compete in Ba games held on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Each day, a Boy's Ba game for under-16-year-olds starts at 10am, followed by a Men's game at 1pm.

There is no limit on the number of players, how long the games take and there are few rules.

To win the game, the Uppies must get the Ba from the Market Cross in the centre of Kirkwall up the street and touch the ball against the gable end wall of a house, known as Mackinson's corner. The Doonies must push down the street and immerse the ball in the sea at the town's harbour.

Before the sale Jamie Russell, of Lyon & Turnbull, said: "This is a really fun lot but also one which has huge significance given the history of the game and the provenance of the piece.

"As you might imagine, we don't come across a Kirkwall Ba very often."