Kilbowie Park

Kilbowie Park

Kilbowie Park Location in West Dunbartonshire
Location	Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Coordinates	55°54′5.9″N 4°24′12.9″W / 55.901639°N 4.403583°W / 55.901639; -4.403583
Record attendance	14,900 E.S. Clydebank v Hibernian 10 February 1965
Surface	Grass
Opened	1939
Closed	1996
Tenants
Clydebank Juniors F.C. ES Clydebank F.C. Clydebank F.C.	1939–1964 1964–1965 1965–1996

Kilbowie Park, also known as New Kilbowie Park, was a football stadium in Clydebank, Scotland. It was the home ground of Clydebank F.C..

New Kilbowie was built for Clydebank Juniors in 1939. In 1964, Clydebank merged with East Stirlingshire and entered the Scottish Football League. A record attendance of 14,900 was set by a visit of Hibernian in February 1965. Floodlights were first used in a match against Sunderland in the same month. The merger collapsed after a legal battle, but Clydebank entered the league in their own right in 1966.

Clydebank was promoted to the Premier Division in 1977. A covered plastic-seated stand was built, which was funded by selling star player Davie Cooper for £100,000 to Rangers. To avoid having to apply legislation affecting stadium safety, the club installed wooden benches that reduced the capacity to 9,950. This was below the 10,000 limit at which the legislation started to apply and technically made Kilbowie the first all-seater stadium in the United Kingdom.

Clydebank played its last competitive game at Kilbowie against Hamilton Academical in 1996 (1-3). The last ever game at Kilbowie was a testimonial match later that summer for Ken Eadie, against Rangers (2-3). The ground was sold by club owners, the Steedman family, in 1997. Clydebank endured several seasons groundsharing at Cappielow in Greenock and Boghead Park in Dumbarton.