Raydale Park is a football

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

in Gretna,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is home to

Lowland League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) and the Park’s Motor Group Scottish Lowland League for sponsorship reasons is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits a ...

side Gretna 2008 and now has a capacity of 1,030. Raydale formerly served as the home ground of Gretna until the club resigned from the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

in 2008.

History

Gretna played their home games at Raydale during their existence in English

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

and then during their period in the

. However, most of their home matches in the 2007–08 season were played at

Fir Park Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–2008 SPL season. ...

, in

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

because Raydale did not meet SPL requirements. This meant a 150-mile round trip for fans from the Gretna area. Gretna also played a UEFA Cup match (a 1–5 defeat to Derry City) at

because Raydale was inadequate for that competition. Gretna had planned to leave Raydale Park and move to an eco-stadium in

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, close to the town of Gretna, Scotland, Gretna, on the Scottish side of the English-Scottish border. It is accessed from the A74( ...

. These plans never came to fruition as the club suffered severe financial problems during the 2007–08 season. These financial problems were expected to lead to the sale of the ground for a use other than football. Supporters of Gretna F.C. formed Gretna 2008, a new club that started by playing their home matches at the Everholm Stadium in Annan. Dumfries and Galloway Council ruled out bidding for the stadium, which they wanted to preserve for recreational use. It was reported by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

that it was likely that Raydale would be sold to developers "outside football", but the new buyers, Sawtry (IoM) allowed Gretna 2008 to move into Raydale in May 2009. In May 2011, Sawtry agreed to sell the ground, along with the social club and market on-site, to the Raydale Community Partnership, a group made up of members from a community council and from Gretna 2008. The £250,000 deal was finalised on 28 May 2011. An artificial surface was installed during the summer of 2021.

Greyhound racing

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

track was constructed around the pitch just after

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 ...

. Racing took place on Wednesday at 7:30 pm and consisted of five-dog races (instead of the normal six-dog racing) over 300 and 480 yards. Racing continued for forty years until Gretna F.C. needed to increase the size of the pitch in 1985. The greyhound operation owned by James Norman and sons constructed and moved to a new purpose-built track called Halcrow Stadium to the west of Gretna.

Gallery

File:Gretna Football Club ground 1.JPG, Raydale Park (2006) File:Gretna Football Club ground 2.JPG, Raydale Park (2006) File:Gretna Football Club ground 3.JPG, Raydale Park (2006)

References

{{Scottish greyhound tracks Gretna F.C. Gretna F.C. 2008 Football venues in Scotland Sports venues in Dumfries and Galloway Scottish Football League venues Lowland Football League venues Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway Sports venues completed in 1946 Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Greyhound racing in Scotland

History

Greyhound racing

Gallery

See also

References