Scotland’s oldest football heads to Miami for World Cup debut

A leather-and-pig’s-bladder football from between 1540 and 1570 went on display at the Coral Gables Museum in Miami, where it is being shown through June 27 as part of the build-up to Scotland’s World Cup match against Brazil on June 24. Guinness World Records says the 16th-century ball is the world’s oldest football, and this trip marks the first time it has attended a FIFA World Cup game.

The ball was discovered in the 1970s at Stirling Castle, lodged in the rafters behind oak panelling in the Queen’s Chamber during renovation work. It is held by the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, where it is catalogued as accession number 15905 and one of the prize objects in a collection of more than 40,000 items. Guinness World Records says the ball was re-discovered in the museum archives in 1999 and later confirmed by tests to be 436 years old.

The ball dates to the era of James V and the young Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived at Stirling Castle as a child. It is unknown whether Mary, Queen of Scots ever used it, and it is more likely to have been played with by soldiers and staff at the castle, possibly as a form of handball rather than anything resembling modern football.

Alongside the ball, Scottish fashion brand Islander is showing a Harris Tweed collection.