| Founded | 1985 |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Divisions | 1 |
| Number of teams | 7 |
| Level on pyramid | N/A |
| Domestic cup(s) | GF MacRae Cup, Ross Cup, Ewen MacRae Cup, Clan Donald Cup |
| Current champions | Sleat & Strath (2024) |
| Website | Official Website |
The West Highland Amateur Football Association (WHAFA) is a football association for amateur clubs in Skye, Lochalsh and Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands. The association is affiliated to the Scottish Amateur Football Association. Member clubs take part in a summer league as well as a number of domestic cups and the Highland Amateur Cup. [1] Currently, the association is composed of a single division of seven clubs, although numbers of clubs and divisions have varied over the years.
Between 2005 and 2022, the association was known as the Skye and Lochalsh AFA. It reverted to its former name of West Highland AFA at the 2023 AGM to reflect on the widening catchment area of the league with the inclusions of Mallaig in 2018 and Fort William Reserves in 2023. [2]
The following clubs are current members of the association and take part in affiliated competitions. [3]
The West Highland Association was formed with the aim of bringing about the amalgamation of the Wester Ross and Skye leagues. On Thursday 9 May 1985, following a series of discussions involving representatives of the associations and consultations with the clubs involved, a meeting held in Kyle gave the go-ahead to a steering committee to formulate a draft constitution and rules for the West Highland Amateur Football Asosociation. [8] The first competitions were held in 1986, with the twelve original member clubs split in two divisions. [9] The number of teams entering varied from season to season, but the format was unchanged until 2001 and the decision to then adopt a single league. The switch was unanimously supported at the pre-season AGM. [10]
Although Portree United were the first to have a stronghold on the league, winning the first four editions, Portree AFC enjoyed a remarkable and unique period of dominance in the late 1990s and 2000s, winning eleven league titles in a row between 1997 and 2007. [11] Since 2010, Sleat & Strath have been the most successful team in the area with seven league wins as well as numerous cup successes.
In 2018, Mallaig, became the first team from Lochaber to join the association, and they have since become a major challenger for local honours. [5]
The introduction of Fort William Reserves in 2023, making them the second side from Lochaber to join, led the association to revert to the West Highland AFA name which had been dropped in 2005 for Skye and Lochalsh AFA. [12] These changes are reflections on the ever changing landscapes of clubs involved in the association. Many member clubs based in Skye and Lochalsh have folded or merged in recent years including the likes of: Bernisdale, Dunvegan, Glenelg, Plockton, Portree United, Staffin, Struan. Historically, some teams from the Wester Ross area have also been affiliated to the league, Gairloch/Aultbea United being the most recent example. [13]
Kyle FC pulled out of competitions following the 2024 AGM, putting an end to several decades of continuous participation in the local league and cups. [14] For the first time ever, there are no Lochalsh representative in the West Highland League.
These are the results for the West Highland League since its inception in 1986. The trophy, named the Baghsaw Cup, has been in use since the 1930s and it was previously presented to champions of the Wester Ross League.
| Year | Champions | Runners-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Portree United | ||
| 1987 | Portree United (2) | ||
| 1988 | Portree United (3) | ||
| 1989 | Portree United (4) | ||
| 1990 | Gairloch | ||
| 1991 | Kyleakin | ||
| 1992 | Portree United (5) | ||
| 1993 | Portree United (6) | ||
| 1994 | Portree United (7) | ||
| 1995 | Dunvegan | ||
| 1996 | Dunvegan (2) | ||
| 1997 | Portree | ||
| 1998 | Portree (2) | ||
| 1999 | Portree (3) | ||
| 2000 | Portree (4) | Sleat & Strath | |
| 2001 | Portree (5) | Kyleakin | Sleat & Strath |
| 2002 | Portree (6) | Struan | Dunvegan |
| 2003 | Portree (7) | Plockton | Sleat & Strath |
| 2004 | Portree (8) | Kyle | Dunvegan |
| 2005 | Portree (9) | Kyle | Dunvegan |
| 2006 | Portree (10) | Dunvegan | Kyleakin |
| 2007 | Portree (11) | Dunvegan | Kyleakin |
| 2008 | Skeabost | Portree | Sleat & Strath |
| 2009 | Kyleakin (2) | Sleat & Strath | Skeabost |
| 2010 | Sleat & Strath | Dunvegan | Portree |
| 2011 | Sleat & Strath (2) | Kyleakin | Portree |
| 2012 | Kyleakin (3) | Sleat & Strath | Portree Juniors |
| 2013 | Sleat & Strath (3) | Portree | Portree Juniors |
| 2014 | Sleat & Strath (4) | Portree Juniors | Portree |
| 2015 | Portree (12) | Portree Juniors | Sleat & Strath |
| 2016 | Portree Juniors | Kyleakin | Sleat & Strath |
| 2017 | Kyleakin (4) | Portree Juniors | Sleat & Strath |
| 2018 | Mallaig | Kyleakin | Portree Juniors |
| 2019 | Mallaig (2) | Sleat & Strath | Kyleakin |
| 2020 | No Competition held | ||
| 2021 | Sleat & Strath (5) | Mallaig | North West Skye |
| 2022 | Sleat & Strath (6) [17] | Mallaig | North West Skye |
| 2023 | Mallaig (3) | Sleat & Strath | North West Skye |
| 2024 | Sleat & Strath (7) | Mallaig | North West Skye |
Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It has land borders with the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Moray and Perth and Kinross. The wider upland area of the Scottish Highlands after which the council area is named extends beyond the Highland council area into all the neighbouring council areas plus Angus and Stirling.
Portree is the capital and largest town of the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is a civil parish and lies within the Highland council area, around 74 miles (119 km) from its administrative centre of Inverness.
Mallaig is a port in Morar, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. It faces Skye from across the Sound of Sleat. The local railway station is the terminus of the West Highland Line, and the town is linked to Fort William by the A830 road – the "Road to the Isles".
Sleat is a peninsula and civil parish on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan MacDonald of Sleat. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic Slèite, which in turn comes from Old Norse sléttr, which well describes Sleat when considered in the surrounding context of the mainland, Skye and Rùm mountains that dominate the horizon all about Sleat.
Skye and Lochalsh was a local government district, created in 1975 as one of eight districts within the Highland region in Scotland. It include the Isle of Skye and the Lochalsh area on the mainland. The main offices of the council were in Portree, on the Isle of Skye. The district was abolished in 1996 when Highland was made a single-tier council area.
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey was a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. As with all seats since 1950 it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Ross, Skye and Lochaber was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Skye Camanachd is a shinty team from the Isle of Skye, Highland, Scotland. It plays in the Premier Division and has a reserve team in North Division One, as well as a Ladies team in the WCA National Division One and a Ladies reserve team in the WCA Development League. The club is based at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree.
Broadford, together with nearby Harrapool, is the second-largest settlement on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Lying in the shadow of the Red Cuillin mountains, Broadford is within the parish of Strath. A long meandering village historically consisting of a few buildings on either side of the Broadford River, the many small townships around the wide sweep of the bay have grown together and Broadford now stretches for 1+1⁄2 miles around the southern side of Broadford Bay.
The Highland Amateur Cup is an annual football cup competition run by the Highland Executive branch of the Scottish Amateur Football Association. It also covers various offshore islands.
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. Although Sgitheanach has been suggested to describe a winged shape, no definitive agreement exists as to the name's origins.
Inverness-shire or the County of Inverness, is a historic county in Scotland. It is named after Inverness, its largest settlement, which was also the county town. Covering much of the Highlands and some of the Hebrides, it is Scotland's largest county by land area. It is generally rural and sparsely populated, containing only three towns which held burgh status, being Inverness, Fort William and Kingussie. The county is crossed by the Great Glen, which contains Loch Ness and separates the Grampian Mountains to the south-east from the Northwest Highlands. The county also includes Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in both Scotland and the United Kingdom.
The Sir William Sutherland Cup, more commonly known simply as the Sutherland Cup, is a trophy in the sport of shinty. It is the national cup competition for junior sides, the equivalent of the Camanachd Cup for those sides in lower league competition. The current (2024) holders are Kingussie 2nd team, the "junior" level reserves of the successful "senior" club.
Radio Skye is a local radio station which broadcasts from Portree to the Isle of Skye, as well as the region of Lochalsh, Wester Ross on the Scottish mainland.
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region, which elects seven additional members, as well as eight constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
West Highland College is a college of further and higher education in the West Highlands of Scotland. The college is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands and operates from a number of college centres across the area, at Auchtertyre, Broadford, Fort William, Kilchoan, Kinlochleven, Mallaig, Portree, Strontian and Ullapool.
Lochalsh is a district of mainland Scotland that is currently part of the Highland council area. The Lochalsh district covers all of the mainland either side of Loch Alsh - and of Loch Duich - between Loch Carron and Loch Hourn, ie. from Stromeferry in the north on Loch Carron down to Corran on Loch Hourn and as (south-)west as Kintail. It was sometimes more narrowly defined as just being the hilly peninsula that lies between Loch Carron and Loch Alsh. The main settlement is Kyle of Lochalsh, located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the adjacent island of Skye. A ferry used to connect the two settlements but was replaced by the Skye Bridge in 1995.
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it was first contested at the 2024 general election, and was the final constituency to announce its result, due to multiple recounts related to technical issues in its vote-counting.
