Myreside Stadium is a sports ground in Edinburgh, Scotland. Often simply known as Myreside,

Watsonians RFC Watsonian Football Club is a rugby union club based in Edinburgh and part of the Scottish Rugby Union. The club is connected with George Watson's College as a club for former pupils, and changed its policy in the 1980s to be a fully open club, ...

have used this venue on the east side of Myreside Road as their home ground for

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

matches since 1933.

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh pl ...

used it for some home matches 1996–2002 an again in 2017 and 2018; this included

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

, later

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

and

European Rugby Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception ...

matches. A main stand is positioned along the west side of the grass pitch, with floodlights around the ground. Ahead of the Edinburgh Rugby team's return to play home matches at the stadium, temporary stands were installed to increase seating capacity to 13,799.

History

The ground originally used by Watsonians RFC was called Myreside, which took its name from a local farm. On 4 March 1933, Watsonians played their first match at New Myreside, against Royal High School FP Rugby Club. A West stand was constructed. The Watsonian Cricket Club play at the adjacent

Myreside Cricket Ground Myreside Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Edinburgh, Scotland. The first recorded match held on the ground came in 1901 when George Watson's College played Blair Lodge School. The ground held its first first-class cricket, first-class mat ...

. When rugby turned professional, Edinburgh Rugby used the stadium for their home matches 1996 to 1998. That team was succeeded by the Edinburgh Reivers which played at Myreside from 1999–2002. In May 2016, Edinburgh Rugby announced a partnership with the owners of the ground,

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a hospital school in 1741, became a day school in 1871, and was merg ...

. The partnership allowed a trial period starting in January 2017 for Edinburgh to return to Myreside for six months, downsizing from Murrayfield Stadium. The pitch has floodlights but the facilities at the ground are ageing. The plans involved increasing the stadium capacity by erecting temporary stands at the North and South ends.

Edinburgh City Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

approved plans to erect temporary stands in December 2016. The temporary stands were erected as close as possible to the dead-ball lines. The capacity was increased to just above 13,799 seats in time for Edinburgh to play their first game in January 2017. In July 2017, Edinburgh set out plans that involved playing a minimum of nine home matches at Myreside for the next three seasons, subject to planning permission. Some of their fixtures, including the annual 1872 Cup clash, would be played at Murrayfield. In February 2018 Edinburgh announced that the remainder of the season's matches would be played at Murrayfield. Within a couple of weeks, the club had confirmed that Myreside would no longer be used as their home venue.

Transport

The ground is near several routes operated by

Lothian Buses Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom: the City of Edinburgh Council (through Transport for Edinburgh) owns 91%, Midlothian Council 5%, East Lothi ...

. Myreside is a 2-minute cycle from the Canal National Cycle Route 754 which runs through the West of the city.

References

{{Culture and leisure facilities in Edinburgh Rugby union stadiums in Scotland Sports venues in Edinburgh Rugby union in Edinburgh Edinburgh Rugby 1933 establishments in Scotland Sports venues completed in 1933