Boghead Park was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

ground in the town of

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. It was owned by

Dumbarton F.C. Dumbarton Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Dumbarton, Scotland. Founded on 23 December 1872, they are one of the oldest football clubs in Scotland. The club plays home games at the Dumbarton Football Stadium next to Dumba ...

, who played there for 121 years between 1879 and 2000. By the time the ground closed in 2000, it was the oldest stadium in Scotland that had been in continuous use.

History

Dumbarton first used Boghead Park in 1879. The club shared the first

Scottish league championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

1891 Events January–March * January 1 ** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany. ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. ** Germany takes formal possession of its new Af ...

with Rangers, then became the first outright champions in

1892 Events January–March * January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States. * February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado. * February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies fo ...

. The pitch was turned 90 degrees in 1913. After this the club constructed a tiny main stand, nicknamed the " Postage Box", which only had a capacity of 80 seats. It was replaced by a modern facility that held 303 people in 1980. The new stand was opened by

Alan Hardaker Alan Hardaker OBE (29 July 1912Biographical details
such as date of birth, wife's ...

, former secretary of the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. Next to this stand was a small cover used by

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookm ...

s when Boghead staged

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tr ...

. Floodlights were installed in 1957 and the ground's record attendance was set in the same year, 18,001 for a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leagu ...

, which Dumbarton lost 4–1. Also in 1957 the club bought the platform roof from Turnberry railway station for use as a

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

cover. Having played host to a crowd of almost 20,000, Boghead Park was latterly a sad sight. In 1994, the club was ordered to construct a fence in front of toilets in the ground, because local residents complained that they could see inside the toilets. The ground fell into a level of disrepair and its capacity, which was around 10,000 when Dumbarton played in the Premier Division in the mid-1980s, was reduced to 5,000 by 1995, and less than 3,000 by the time of the ground's closure. This was largely due to the club not maintaining the site as they decided whether to renovate the ground or move on to pastures new. That the board chose to let the ground get into a run down state is signified by the fact that when one of the two stands that existed at Boghead Park in the mid-1980s was destroyed by fire, they chose not to replace it, instead leaving the site empty. Ambitious plans were created for the redevelopment of Boghead Park into an all seated facility with a capacity in the region of 9,000. These plans are on show at the

Scottish Football Museum The Scottish Football Museum is Scotland’s national museum of association football, located in Hampden Park in Glasgow. The Museum The museum houses over 2000 objects of football memorabilia, including the world's oldest cap and match ticket fr ...

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

, but were never put into practice by the club. Dumbarton eventually sold Boghead Park site for a housing development and moved to a new stadium elsewhere in the town, the

Dumbarton Football Stadium The Dumbarton Football Stadium, commonly known as The Rock, and currently named The moreroom.com Stadium for sponsorship purposes is a stadium in Dumbarton, Scotland, used mostly for football matches; it is the home ground of Dumbarton Footba ...

, in 2000.

Greyhound racing

A greyhound track was erected around the pitch at Boghead Park in 1932 with the first meeting taking place on 7 October 1932. The track was independent (unlicensed) but the exact date of closure is unknown.

Groundshares

Boghead Park was used by

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

for a single match on 1 January 1949; the game against St Mirren was moved from Morton's Cappielow Park as the pitch was unplayable.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p155 After leaving New Kilbowie Park,

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling and Milton beyond) to the west, and the Yoker and Drumchapel ...

used Boghead Park as their home ground between 1996 and 1999, when they moved to Cappielow Park.

In popular culture

Boghead Park was chosen by

Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...

as the supposed home ground of the fictional football team, Kilnockie F.C. for his film, " A Shot at Glory". Duvall allegedly chose Boghead Park because of its ramshackle nature, but ironically, the filming involved the film crew making improvements to the football groun

The stadium is the subject of the song ''High Tension at Boghead'', released by

The Supernaturals The Supernaturals are a five piece guitar-based indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. Fronted by singer-songwriter James McColl, they signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and ...

as a B-side to their 1997 single ''Prepare To Land''.

References

External links