Even though I am unlikely to ever see them play, a little bit of Arthurlie Football Club will always be 'in my heart' thanks to this act of kindness. Whoever you were...thank you!
This is the players & officials entrance through which I was lucky enough to get into the ground.
Welcoming mesages on the gates, I like the ironwork over them.
We are in the corner of the ground, as we go through them. The matchday entrance is up the other end of the stadium, but we will start our circuit from this corner, going left, in a clockwise direction.
In the same spot, turning to the left slightly, we can see the covered enclosure on the far side.
A few paces along is the players 'tunnel'. Behind us is the clubhouse & changing rooms, but for some reason, unbeknown to me, I never got a shot of them. But we will see the buildings, from another angle, later on.
The pitch is railed off at this end, but no terracing, or hard standing behind the goal.
Behind the penalty area the pitch is railed off, but very, very tight for spectators to stand long some of it.
Behind the goal area, we see up the pitch, to the far end.
And eyes left, to the covered terrace, with substantail open standing either side of it.
Getting closer to the side, a bit of a tight corner to get round though.
There is a bit of a grass bank here, creating an elevated position to watch, if you so wish.
A shale path leads up to the terracing.
Before we move along we look back behind the goal.
The next 'corner flag'(less) shot.
Slightly unusual terracing, low slabbed steps, of differing size.
It's it decent condition.
Looking along it, at the back, geting closer to the cover.
Almost there!
From lower down.
And at the front, from on the pitch, with a dugout. Like many Scottish non-league venues there is a dugout on either side of the pitch, rather than both on the same touchline, as is the English tradition.
This is a close up of the dugout.
Back under the cover, we are now at the back of the shed, with the open terraced end to our left coming into view.
Straight ahead, over the halfway line.
Walking on, we're now about to move onto the rest of the open terracing.
Several more paved terrace steps lead to the next corner.
Turning to glance back at the covered area.
And again, but further along.
The terracing extends behind this end.
A different style to the previous paved slabs type.
From this corner we look back along the main side.
Behind the goal the terracing looks a little more 'weather beaten'.
I am guessing this area is a little older, as it seems to be showing it's age, in parts.
As we pass the middle, behind the goal area, the terracing appears to open up more, beyond this spot.
From behind the goal area we see over to the covered side again.
Down the middle of the pitch.
The terrace clearly does widen at this spot. To the left, out of shot, is the turnstiles. And up ahead are some buildings, I am guessing a tea bar, and, maybe a small bar/boardroom area?
Here are the turnstiles, set back. The Barrhead train station is over the road from them, so this is an extremely easy ground to get to. Also, not the 'traditional' open roofed toilets to the right of them.
The prices are on the gate.
This is the turnstiles from outside the ground.
On the wall is a plaque from the Barrhead Heritage Trail, erected by the local council.
If you were to come through the turnstile on a matchday then this would be your first view of the ground.
Here are the buildings, set back, at the corner. Notice that white curved thing, at the bottom left of the picture...
No, I have no idea what they are doing there, or where on earth they came from, either!
From the raised area we see down over the pitch.
Back at the front, we have a last look at hte narrower part of terracing at this end.
In the corner now, the terracing rises slightly, like a separate section of it.
Here that explanation looks a lot clearer.
Up in the corner we see over the pitch.
Down the side the slabbed paving returns, but as this side slopes & narrows, it only stretches to the halfway line.
Turning along the last side of our brief visit, we see the area at the turnstiles end from here.
The hard standing here 'stepping' downwards as we walk, rather than toward the pitch.
You notice the slight inclines more from this way, looking up at them.
Blocked off, just before the dugout on this side of the ground.
The dugout raised up, on a brick platform. the very tight railed off spectator area is just past it, going down to the corner where we began.
The halfway line, toward the cover.
I wouldn't have thought many people ever bother to watch a game from this part of the ground.
The last picture, showing the club buildings behind, at the corner where we walked in, to end our tour of this superb little ground.
