METHIL

Sea Road, Methil, Fifeshire, Scotland.

POSTCODE————————————KY8 3DE.

LOCATED————————————–Sea Road is located about half a mile south west of Methil town centre. The town of Methil lies 8 miles north east of Kirkaldy, an industrious coastal town linked with Buckhaven and Leven.

ORIGINAL SITE——————————-On dumping ground used by the adjacent Wemys Brickworks.

DATE CONSTRUCTED———————-Not known but he land was levelled to create a football pitch for junior football team Denbeath Star and became known as Den Park.

DATE VENUE OPENED———————Around 1930.
Meaning other sports may have taken place prior to the arrival of Greyhound Racing.

FIRST MEETING——————————May 30th 1934.
Greyhound Racing only.

LICENSED OR INDEPENDENT————Independent
All venues covered would have to be licensed with the government, licensed suggested in this section would refer to tracks operating under NGRC Rules.

INSIDE OR OUTSIDE HARE TYPE——–Inside Sumner hare.
Please note that the Electric Hare suggested is only a guidance and would have been in operation for a certain amount of time at this venue. Although it is not necessarily guaranteed that it was operational all the time, as other types of lure may have been used and updated as time progressed.

DISTANCES————————————245 and 410 yards.
Please note that most racing venues distances had become varied throughout the years, the ones given above were at once point set and offers only a guidance to the track size.

CIRCUMFERENCE—————————Not known.
Please note that alterations at most racing venues throughout its existence would see that the circumference of the track would vary, the one shown above offers only a guidance to the track size.

BIG RACE NAMES—————————None known.

STADIUM SHARED WITH——————Denbeath Star FC then Star & Wellesley FC.

LAST MEETING——————————-During 1961.
Greyhound Racing only.

STADIUM CLOSURE DATE—————-1961
Meaning other sports may have taken place after Greyhound Racing had ceased.

STADIUM DEMOLITION——————–Not known.

BUILT ON SITE——————————–A Police Station and Forth View Care Home.
In some cases, structure’s that originally covered the venue after the stadium had been demolished, may have been themselves demolished too, so the one described is more likely to be the one which now presently covers the site.

EVIDENCE LEFT TODAY——————-There is a pair old white gateposts next to cottage just off Sea Road may have been access to some part of the site. The red brick boundary wall that separated the track and the Brickworks is still there today.

FURTHER COMMENTS———————None as yet.

The Fifeshire town of Methil lies in a very industrious area on the west coast of Scotland, bordered by the towns of Leven and Buckhaven. Methil’s nearest city is Dundee, a city which lies on the northern banks of the Tay Estuary 30 miles away to the northwest, but its nearest greyhound track would have been Thornton, situated eight miles in a south westerly direction.

The track at Methil was found roughly half a mile southwest of Methil’s town centre, on land hemmed in by Sea Road and Cowley Street, which branches off the B391 Wellesley Road. The original site had been a dumping ground for the Wemys brickworks next door, before being levelled to form a football pitch for the local junior football club, Denbeath Star. The venue became known as Den Park, but changes came in 1934 when a group of Greyhound Racing enthusiasts approached the football clubs committee to construct a greyhound track around the perimeter of the football pitch.

Opening up as a flapping track, Methil’s first meeting came on the 30th of May that year, staging six dog races over distances of 245- and 410-yard handicapped races. The greyhounds originally chased a Ball Hare type lure, but later an inside Sumner type hare system was installed. Further information regarding greyhound racing at Methil remains sketchy other than it closed during 1961, and that Star and Wellesley Football club also used the football pitch up until 1941.

The site is now covered by a Police Station and The Forth View Care home, both located south of Sea Road. Little evidence remains of the venue, but a red bricked boundary wall is still clearly evident on its Western edge, along with a rusty old access gate, flanked by two large white stone posts found next to a white cottage, which possibly could have been an access to its car park in days gone by.

A programme, photograph or even memorabilia for this track is required for this page, if you can help please contact me.