About

Highland Armoured Combat is a club for the sport of Mediaeval Combat, or Buhurt as it is also known. Classes are held at Lybster Community Centre, Mondays 7pm to 9pm – anyone interested in taking up the sport is invited to come along and try

What is Buhurt?

It is a sport based on tournament fighting in the middle ages, with some modern safety additions. Essentially it is fighting in armour, using blunted weapons. There are three main disciplines: Duel, which is one on one, based on points scored; Buhurt, which is team on team, based on getting the other side onto the ground; and Outrance, which is also one on one but sometimes described as “MMA in armour”.

There are also three different levels or stages in training for the sport. To begin with you start training in fitness, and learning grappling, throws, how to fall, and various techniques you will use later on. Next you move onto “soft kit”, padded weapons and protection, to learn the skills of fighting with weapons. Finally you move on to full armoured combat, using metal armour and weapons based on C14th and 15th styles (with certain modern safety modifications set by the international rules of the sport)

Is it dangerous?

As with all contact combat sports, there are certain risks of injury. On every training night you will certainly expect to get small scrapes and bruises, as well as tired muscles. If something goes wrong, you can get heavy bruising, strain a muscle, or injure a joint, and more serious injuries are possible once weapons start being used, even though precautions are taken to make it as safe as practical. Throws and falls bring their own risks, such as concussion. For this reason,club membership is restricted to 16* years and over, and training with softkit or metal equipment generally restricted to 18 years and over; everyone requires to sign a legal waiver acknowledging the risks.

*At present under 18s are not being permitted to train at all, due to lack of safety equipment; as soon as we a in a position to purchase this, we will consider opening classes to age 16+ members.

How much does this cost?

Unfortunately equipment is expensive: a full set of softkit equipment is in the hundreds of pounds, while full metal armour and weapons costs thousands! The whole purpose of the club is to try to remove this barrier by getting club equipment which can be used for training and competing.

How can I get involved?

If you want to train, you are welcome to come along to classes and learn all the skills, even if at the end you only want to do the fitness training or softkit.

There is also a lot of support skills required to keep the equipment safe and functioning: sewing, metalwork, woodwork,etc, and to assist those training or competing. If you want to provide support services, whether chosing to join as a member or not, that would be a great help to those training or competing.

Finally, donations or sponsorship will be essential to allow the club to open up opportunities to as wide a range of people as possible to take part in the sport. Please contact the club committee if you would like to discuss this further.