Somerset Park

Somerset Park is a football stadium located in Ayr, South Ayrshire, Scotland. It has been the home of Ayr United since they were founded in 1910. Prior to that, it was the home ground of Ayr, who merged with Ayr Parkhouse to form Ayr United.

History

Ayr commissioned Somerset Park in 1888 to replace Beresford Park. Ayr needed an alternative venue for a friendly match against Aston Villa because Beresford Park was being used for the Ayr Cattle Show at the time. The Beresford Park clubhouse and grandstand were dismantled and reassembled at Somerset Park. Ayr entered the Scottish Football League in 1897, but failed to seriously challenge for promotion to the First Division.Ayr Parkhouse, who played at Beresford Park, subsequently joined the league, but were also stuck in the Second Division. The two clubs decided to merge in 1910 to form Ayr United and the new club adopted Somerset Park as its primary home, although Beresford Park was used during the First World War.

Ayr United bought Somerset Park for £2,500 in 1920. Four years later, the direction of the pitch was changed when the club built a new Main Stand. A roof was built in 1933 over the railway end terrace, which was split into male and female sections.

The ground's record attendance of 25,225 was set on 13 September 1969 in a match against Rangers. Floodlights were installed a year later. Somerset Park was relatively late in doing this because the ground is in the flight path of the nearby Prestwick Airport. The Somerset Road end terrace was covered in 1971. A new wing was added to the Main Stand in 1989, increasing the seating capacity to 1,450 in an overall capacity of 12,128.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Ayr United were owned by Bill Barr, whose Barr Construction company built new stands for several clubs, including Kilmarnock, Hibernian, St Mirren, Stranraer and Airdrie. Despite this work on other Scottish grounds, Somerset Park was not developed, which meant that Ayr United could not be promoted to the Scottish Pre

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