HE lived in a caravan with his pet sheep McMutton, eschewed personal hygiene and was as far from today’s pampered metrosexual footballers as it is possible to get.

But now Hot Shot Hamish, the hulking striker with the thunderbolt shot who graced the pages of the Scorcher comic, has been accused of scoring an own goal by peddling an insulting and outdated image of Highlanders.

A new annual featuring the exploits of the Hebridean shepherd, plucked from obscurity to become a top striker with Glasgow giants’ Princes Park FC, has been criticised by politicians for portraying him as a dimwitted bumpkin.

The strips, which ran during the 1970s, document the crofter’s struggle to adapt to city life and his fame as a top striker, despite never having seen a football before. He sets up home with his sheep in a caravan on the club’s football pitch, is startled by the sight of cars and televisions and showers with his clothes on.

In one strip, Hamish is derided by locals as “an idiot from the country” after he is collared by a policeman for lighting a fire and cooking his breakfast on a pavement.

Angus McNeil, the nationalist MP for the Western Isles, said the strips, which have been collected for a Christmas annual, displayed “ignorance and prejudice” and were inappropriate for the 21st century.

“I am surprised that this stereotype is being perpetuated in this day and age,” he said. “The creators were living in more politically incorrect times. The Dandy and The Beano of the early 1970s wouldn’t look back with any pride on some of the strips they produced either.”

Willie MacDonald, the manager of Back Football Club on Lewis, said that the comic strip was insulting.

“This will not raise a smile up here,” he said. “A guy who has never seen a football and is going around with a sheep is absolutely ridiculous.

“Some things in it are horrific and this type of character has never existed on the islands. I used to hear these type of jibes 20 years ago but I had hoped they had gone away.”

Malcolm MacDonald, secretary of Stornoway Athletic, the oldest football club in the Hebrides, said: “Some of the guys who have played for us over the years have been sheep farmers and looked a bit like Hamish.

“But they certainly knew a lot more about football. Some of the things that have been perpetuated in the comic may have been true in the Hebrides before the First World War but not in the 1970s or today.”

The scripts for Hot Shot Hamish were written by Fred Baker, an Englishman who died earlier this year, and Julio Schiaffino, an Argentinian illustrator. In his heyday, his exploits were read by more than 300,000 fans every week.

Hamish first appeared in the Scorcher in August, 1973. The strip was later carried in Tiger and Roy of the Rovers. Barrie Tomlinson, the former editor of Roy of the Rovers and Tiger, said: “Fred Baker had a very mischievous sense of humour and I don’t think we could get away with some of the stuff today. It was a more innocent time but we are living in a different world now. When I first looked at Hot Shot Hamish I was a bit concerned. A lot of the strips we had in Tiger were very true to life and I thought this Desperate Dan-type Highlander who could burst the net with his shots was a bit way out.

“But the more I read it the more I realised it was a work of genius. It’s a great tribute to the creators that Hamish is finally getting his first annual.”

A spokesman for Black and White, publishers of the annual, said: “Hot Shot Hamish is an affectionate, nostalgic comic strip,” he said. “As well as being very entertaining stories, Hamish’s adventures show him trying to achieve against overwhelming odds, a theme which was and still is, repeated in many different comic strips.”

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be