Raydale Park is a football
stadium in
Gretna,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. It is home to
Lowland League 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 in 2008.
History
Gretna played their home games at Raydale during their existence in
English
English usually refers to:
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* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
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non-League football and then during their period in the
Scottish Football League.
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 2007–08 SPL season. M ...
, in
Motherwell because Raydale did not meet
SPL
SPL may refer to:
Association football
* Saudi Professional League
* Scottish Premier League
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* Singapore Premier League
* RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots
Computing Program ...
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
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 2007–08 SPL season. M ...
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 council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Scottish side of the border between Scotland and England, defined by the small river Sark, which flows into the nearby Solway Firth. It was histori ...
. 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
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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
. The £250,000 deal was finalised on 28 May 2011.
An artificial surface was installed during the summer of 2021.
. 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
to the west of Gretna.