Old Ralston 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 Paisley,

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 the home ground of

Abercorn Abercorn (Gaelic: ''Obar Chùirnidh'', Old English: ''Æbbercurnig'') is a village and civil parish in West Lothian, Scotland. Close to the south coast of the Firth of Forth, the village is around west of South Queensferry. The parish had a pop ...

during their second decade in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a 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 km sout ...

History

Abercorn moved to the ground in 1899 from Underwood Park.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p207, Two stands were built on either side of the pitch, one covered and one uncovered, with a pavilion brought from Underwood Park (which had also previously been moved from Blackstoun Park when Abercorn relocated to Underwood Park in 1889)Smith & Smith, p225 erected in the north-west corner of the site. There were also embankments on the eastern side of the pitch. The first league match was played at Old Ralston Park on 26 August 1899 when Abercorn beat Leith Athletic 3–0. The probable record attendance was set on 9 February 1901 for a

Scottish Qualifying Cup The Scottish Qualifying Cup was a football competition played in Scotland between 1895 and 2007. During that time, apart from a brief spell in the 1950s, it was the only way for non-league teams to qualify for the Scottish Cup. The Qualifying Cup ...

semi-final against

Third Lanark Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottish football club based in Glasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scottish ...

when 5,000 saw Abercorn beaten 1–0. In 1909 the club moved to a site directly to the west of Old Ralston Park, which became known as New Ralston Park. The final league match at Old Ralston Park was played on 20 March 1909, with Abercorn beating Ayr Parkhouse 4–0. The site was subsequently used as a

clay pit A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement. Quarries where clay is mined to make bricks are sometimes called brick pits. A brickyard or brickworks i ...

by the adjacent

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for ...

References

{{Football venues in Scotland Defunct football venues in Scotland Abercorn F.C. Scottish Football League venues Sports venues in Paisley, Renfrewshire