Lennoxtown Training Centre is

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

's training centre, located at

Lennoxtown Lennoxtown (, ) is a town in the East Dunbartonshire council area and the historic county of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The Campsie Fells are located to Lennoxtown's north. The town had a population of 4,094 at the 2011 UK census. History The ...

East Dunbartonshire East Dunbartonshire (; , ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders Glasgow City Council Area to the south, North Lanarkshire to the east, Stirling (council area), Stirling to the north, and West Dunbartonshire to the west. East ...

in Scotland. The complex houses the club's

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

and educational facilities.

Background

Lennoxtown was designed to replace Celtic's former training ground at

Barrowfield Barrowfield is a neighbourhood of Glasgow, Scotland, close to Celtic Park, home of Celtic, which lies immediately to the east. It is bounded by the A89 road (Gallowgate) to the north and the A74 (London Road) to the south. History Being an a ...

(a short distance east of the club's stadium

Celtic Park Celtic Park is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium and the home of Scottish Premiership team Celtic F.C., Celtic, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest List of football stadiums in Sco ...

in the east end of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

). The complex is built on former

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

land adjacent to the vacated Lennox Castle Hospital and is located on a site near the

Campsie Fells The Campsie Fells (also known as the Campsies; ) are a range of hills in central Scotland, stretching east to west from Denny Muir to Dumgoyne in Stirlingshire and overlooking Strathkelvin to the south. The southern extent of the range falls wi ...

; half of the site has been developed in ''Phase One'' of the project to provide the existing training facilities with the remaining land being left for development in ''Phase Two'' which will provide conference facilities and live-in dormitory areas for young players. The centre houses Celtic's entire professional footballing operation and will host the home games for Celtic's ladies team. For many years, the training facilities which Celtic provided at Barrowfield were seen as substandard and would be hidden from potential new signings. This fact was emphasised after their rivals

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

opened their

Auchenhowie The Rangers Training Centre is the training ground of Rangers located in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It was opened in 2001 and originally named Murray Park after the then Rangers owner David Murray. It is also often referred to ...

complex in 2001 and Hearts opened their

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academy with

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

in 2004. A number of club officials and players expressed sadness at leaving Barrowfield but saw it as a necessity for the modern game and that it would aid in helping Celtic attract players to the club. Prior to its opening, Celtic

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or Sports league, league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team (a ...

coach Willie McStay stated ''"after years of shuttling back and forth between Barrowfield, Celtic Park and several other temporary training venues, Lennoxtown will also allow the Youth Academy coaching staff to better utilise their time during the course of a season."'' In 2005, Celtic launched a successful share issue which raised £15m, much of this money would be put towards providing new training facilities. Celtic coach Tommy Burns was tasked with undertaking a fact finding mission and travelled across

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to visit other football clubs' training grounds. Celtic chose sections from Burns's report and this was added to by former Celtic bosses

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and

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player who is currently Technical Director of Dundee. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Sc ...

. In December 2005,

East Dunbartonshire Council East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

's Planning Board approved the outline planning application to develop the training facilities on the site. The following April, the council granted a detailed permission with the leader of East Dunbartonshire Council, John Morrison, stating ''"I'm sure that the residents of East Dunbartonshire are delighted at the prospect of this ambitious development in their area. The Celtic training facility will potentially contribute significantly to the development of Lennoxtown and will also bring wider employment and social benefits to the area."''.

Official opening

The centre was officially opened on 9 October 2007 by Celtic chairman Brian Quinn at a ceremony where he was joined by

Chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Peter Lawwell Peter Lawwell (born 27 May 1959) is the former chief executive of Scottish Premiership club Celtic. He retired in June 2021 from his role as CEO. He was announced as successor to current Celtic chairman Ian Bankier on 2 December 2022 and took ...

, then-Celtic manager

and then Celtic captain

Stephen McManus Stephen David McManus (born 10 September 1982) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is a first-team coach at Scottish Premiership club Celtic. McManus, who played as a centre-back, was a product of Celtic's youth acad ...

Facilities

£8 million was spent on the construction. Indoor facilities include an indoor training hall, a fitness centre with gym and fitness suite, physio and medical facilities, sauna and steam room and hydrotherapy pool, Sports science/sports development facility, changing facilities, classroom/education facilities, football administration offices, media facilities, kit room, laundry and Groundsman's compound. Outdoor facilities include three full-sized UEFA standard natural grass training and match pitches, with undersoil heating to the main pitch, an artificial grass pitch and an additional

goalkeeping In many team sports that involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

training area. The Lennoxtown complex is just over from

Rangers Training Centre The Rangers Training Centre is the training ground of Rangers located in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It was opened in 2001 and originally named Murray Park after the then Rangers owner David Murray. It is also often referred to a ...

, also in

(

as the crow flies The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points. Etymology The meaning of the expression is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in the Charles Dickens novel ''Oliver Twist'' (1838): ...

). Coincidentally, this is almost exactly the same as the distance across the city of Glasgow between the two clubs' main stadia.

Site split plan

In 2019, Celtic announced plans to redevelop their older Barrowfield facilities in Glasgow for use by the academy and

women's team A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

, including an indoor pitch and a matchday venue augmenting the Lennoxtown base which would continue to be used by the first team squad.Celtic submit new training centre plans including indoor pitch at Barrowfield
Glasgow Times, 20 December 2019

Gallery

Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown7.jpg, Celtic crest on glazed lobby Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown14.jpg, Training centre and astroturf pitch Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown13.jpg, Astro-turf pitches Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown12.jpg, Training centre during finishing stages of construction Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown11.jpg, Training centre and main pitch File:LennoxtownGround.jpg, Setting beneath Campsie Fell Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown8.jpg, Rear of training centre during finishing stages of construction File:LennoxtownLobby.jpg, Close up of entrance lobby Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown4.jpg, Main training pitches Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown2.jpg, Side access to training facility Image:Alanmaguirelennoxtown1.jpg, Side elevation Image:Lennoxtown training complex from the air.jpg, Aerial view

References

External links

Chairman's address at the opening of the facility

Video showing the facilities at Lennoxtown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lennoxtown Training Centre Celtic F.C.

Football venues in Scotland Sports venues in East Dunbartonshire Lennoxtown Sports venues completed in 2007 Scottish Women's Premier League venues 2007 establishments in Scotland