Tims 92

Stewart's Melville

Inverleith Sports Field

When visiting new grounds, it’s always nice to stumble across other venues that I wasn’t aware of existing prior to finding them, and this was the case whilst visiting Edinburgh based football club Spartans at City Park, when the bus went past Goldenacre, the home of Heriot’s FP rugby club, yet much like the busses it was a case of two coming along at once, when walking just round the corner to come across Inverleith Sports Ground barely five minutes further on down the road.

It is home to Stewart’s Melville, who can trace their history back to 1875 and a match between Daniel Stewart’s Hospital and George Watson’s College. Like with Heriot’s, they retain a strong link with the school of the same name (the FP standing for ‘Former Pupils’ in case you’re wondering!) and like Goldenacre, the grounds are also owned by the school, playing host to cricket and athletics amongst other sports.  

The part of the site that ‘Stew Mel Lions’ occupy was originally the home of the Scottish Rugby Union, with international matches played there between 1899 & 1925 prior to the building of Murrayfield. It boasts a large Grandstand that must be one of the finest examples of Victorian sports architecture in the country, with three gables on a pitched roof above an upper tier of bench seating and a lower tier of raised terracing that has clearly been given the care and attention that such a building deserves.

Welcome to Stewart's Melville

Entrance to the Grounds

Rear of the Grandstand

The Grandstand

Looking across the Grandstand

The Central Gable