The Inverleith Sports Ground is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

stadium in Inverleith,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland which is the home ground of amateur club Stewart's Melville RFC and was the home ground of the

Scotland national rugby union team The Scotland national rugby union team represents the Scottish Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship, where they are the current Doddie Weir Cup holders. They also participa ...

between 1899 and 1925.

History

Land at Inverleith, at that time on the undeveloped northern fringe of

, was purchased in 1897 by the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

(then the Scottish Football Union), which had previously played international matches at Raeburn Place about further south towards the city centre; that was primarily a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

venue (although it is still used for rugby today as the home of Edinburgh Accies). Thus the organisation became the first of the ' Home Unions' to have its own ground. The first match at the new ground was played on 18 February 1899 when Scotland were defeated 9–3 by

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in the 1899 Home Nations Championship. International rugby was played at Inverleith until the early 1920s, including the first matches played at home by Scotland against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 1905 and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in 1910. Having assessed the condition of the stadium following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

(when only minimal maintenance was carried out) and the poor potential for expansion to cope with larger crowds as the sport's popularity grew, the SRU decided to move to a new site and transferred operations to

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium is a rugby union stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The stadium is owned by the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) who has its headquarters based at the stadium, and is the national stadium of the Scotla ...

on the west side of the city. The last international at the old ground was a victory over France in the 1925 Five Nations Championship; the subsequent win over

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

two months later that clinched the title and a first Grand Slam was the first match at the new ground.A Sporting Nation First Scottish Grand Slam
BBC Scotland Sport, 16 October 2014 Some further unofficial Scotland matches were played at Inverleith during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

when Murrayfield was requisitioned for military use. The Scotland women's national rugby union team hosted matches there occasionally in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Club rugby was initially played at Inverleith by Stewart's College FP, the forerunner to the current Stewart's Melville RFC who still play there operating out of the 1990s clubhouse adjacent to the original grandstand – the owners,

Stewart's Melville College Stewart's Melville College (SMC) is all-boys' Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. Classes are all boys in the 1st to 5th years and co-educational in Sixth (final) year. It has a roll of about 750 p ...

, have their fields for other sports (such as Hockey and Cricket, as well as an impressive number of rugby pitches) in the surrounding area (they were formed by a merger of Daniel Stewart's College and Melville College, whose own sports grounds at Ferryfield, sold off for housing when the institutions merged, were immediately to the north).

Location

The stadium is located on Ferry Road (A902); Edinburgh Academy's junior school is located a short distance to the east – much closer than Stewart's Melville College itself; Goldenacre, the home of another rival school club Heriot's, is around further east. The site is within the Inverleith conservation area. Local amateur rugby club Inverleith RFC do not play at the old stadium itself but on the Arboretum Road playing fields immediately to the east.Home
Inverleith RFC

References

External links

International Rugby (1923)

British Pathé British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

(Scotland v France, silent video footage) {{Coord, 55.9698, -3.2201, display=title Sports venues completed in 1899 Rugby union stadiums in Scotland Sports venues in Edinburgh 1899 establishments in Scotland Rugby union in Edinburgh Scotland national rugby union team History of rugby union in Scotland