I mentioned in this post that our journey up to and back down from Elgin last April turned out to be a peregrination through the heartland of the Highland League.

It meant I have now visited nearly all of the towns which have hosted past or present Highland League clubs during my lifetime.

The first of these would have been Inverness (home to Caledonian FC,* Clachnacuddin and Inverness Thistle*.) I have walked past Caledonian’s former Telford Street Park ground and been to a game at Clachnacuddin’s Grant Street Park but never saw Thistle’s ground, Kingsmills. I think I may have visited Dingwall (Ross County) around the same time. After that – or possibly before – it would have been Brechin (many times now) to see The Sons of the Rock play Brechin City at Glebe Park. Next up was probably Fort William. Another trip to Inverness saw us take in Nairn (Nairn County) and Forres (Forres Mechanics.)

I don’t think I went to Aberdeen (Banks O’ Dee, Cove Rangers,) until well after those trips.

Then on our first sojourn up to Orkney we passed through Brora (Brora Rangers) and Wick (Wick Academy.) A year or so later a journey up to Aberdeenshire saw us in Inverurie (Inverurie Loco Works,) Huntly and Turriff (Turriff United.) In 2019 we went to Peterhead and on to Fraserburgh. The year after that on another trip to Peterhead we visited Pitmedden (Formartine United.)

And so to last April’s journey, passing through Grantown-on-Spey (Strathspey Thistle) and Rothes before reaching Elgin (Elgin City) with a side trip to Lossiemouth. Then finally, on the way back home, Keith.

So, out of all the towns/cities to host clubs in the Highland League during my lifetime I have only Buckie (Buckie Thistle) and Banff (Deveronvale) to visit.

*The present SPFL club whose name contains these two descriptors was formed when Caledonian and Inverness Thistle merged in 1994 to ensure entry into the then SFL. That merged team, Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC, have never played in the Highland League.

Just behind Keith War Memorial, a little further up the small hill on which it stands, is a memorial to the 6th Battalion Gordon Highlanders, a figure of a kilted soldier with rifle at the ready:-

Dedications:-

The battalion’s battle honours are listed on either side of the memorial:-

Keith is a town in the former Banffshire, now a part of Moray, about eight miles south-east of Fochabers. Its War Memorial is a sarcophagus-like cenotaph in the grand municipal style just off the main A 96 road through the town:-

Great War dedication and names:-

Second World War names and dedications are to either side on the walls behind the earlier memorial stone:-

On a piece of grass to the side is a stone laid in memory of the dead of other conflicts:-

Like Georgie Fame’s Peaceful this is another one of those understated 1960s tracks. It was only a minor hit in the UK (see link below.)

98.6 on its release was considered by some to be the archetypical song of its time.

It’s also said (and mentioned in Keith’s Wiki entry) that its title refers to the human body temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. To my mind that allusion in the lyric is more than a little strained.

Keith: 98.6