The early history of Buckie Thistle Football Club is something of a mystery. Although the exact year of the club’s founding is unknown, it is accepted generally to have been established in 1889. The club’s green-and-white hooped home shirts resemble that of Celtic FC, and it has been suggested that Buckie Thistle might have adopted the scheme after receiving a donation of Celtic strips at some point in their history. The date of the adoption of the hoops is potentially intriguing as Celtic did not incorporate their now-famous hoops until 1903. Could the Jags have inspired Celtic? Probably not. But the uncertainty of Buckie Thistle’s beginning does not detract from the club’s illustrious Highland Football League honours.

Since joining the Highland League in 1909, the Jags are eleven-time league champions (most recently, in 2016/17), eight-time Highland League Cup winners, and have won a large number of other regional honours. In October 1954, Buckie Thistle beat Queen’s Park 2-1 at Hampden Park in a replay of the fourth round of the Scottish Cup, becoming the first and only senior non-league club to have won a competitive match at Scotland’s national stadium.

I have been unable to determine how long some version of the current badge has been in use, and while I would tend away from stereotypical Scottish symbols wherever possible, the Saltire and thistle seem wholly appropriate for the Highland Jags, as it does with Partick Thistle, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and fellow Highland Leaguers Strathspey Thistle. The design of the current badge seems dated (specifically, very 1990s in style), so I decided to reincorporate most of the current badge’s visual elements with a new, simpler design.

While seeking to differentiate the home kit from that of Celtic, and with no intention of getting rid of the hoops associated with Buckie Thistle, I went with a subtle variation of using tight hoops in a cooler shade of green, complete with green details (Celtic’s are normally white) and green shorts (never worn by Celtic at home). The away strip makes use of vertical stripes of black and grey as well as some green details.