Powderhall Stadium: North Edinburgh's lost home of cycling, athletics, football, rugby, greyhound racing and speedway

Built on grazing land by the banks of the Water of Leith, Powderhall Stadium, opened in 1869, was originally constructed as an athletics and cycling track but it is for greyhound racing and, much later, speedway, that it became best known.

Long before the arrival of the greyhounds, however, football and rugby union also found a home at Powderhall; St Bernards FC made it their home ground after the original stadium was redeveloped in 1889, as did Edinburgh City FC, who played there in the early 1930s for two seasons.

It was in those early days too that the Powderhall Sprint, the New Year's Day race that continues to this day, was first run in 1870 with many who have taken part through the years later finding Olympic success, the most famous being Eric Liddell, famous for refusing to run in the 1924 Olympic 100 metre final as it was held on the Sabbath.

Liddell went on to win Gold in the 400 metre, a story told in the movie Chariots of Fire, but it was on Powderhall's cinder track that he first ran and where he met Tom McKerchar, the trainer who took him to his Olympic Gold Medal.

The Powderhall Sprint itself was a 110 metre handicap race, moved to Meadowbank in 1971 and since 1999 has been held at Musselburgh racecourse.

In 1927, everything changed when, on August 3, the first greyhound meeting was staged at the stadium, which had just been redesigned especially to accommodate the sport. An estimated 10,000 people attended that first meeting where the inaugural race was won by a dog called Eager Hands.

Notable milestones of the greyhound calendar held at the stadium through the years included the Scottish Derby between 1987 and 1989, the Scottish St Leger, the Edinburgh Cup and the Scottish Grand National.

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