Fans hope to save ‘tartan fortress’ where Scotland football team first played

Part of site of First Hampden in Glasgow is up for rent and campaigners want to turn it into a community hub

Fans of Scotland’s national football team may not have had many reasons to celebrate in recent years, but that hasn’t always been the case. Almost 150 years ago, in 1878, the team moved into their first home in a Glasgow ground known as First Hampden and promptly won every game they played there.

As well as being celebrated as Scotland’s “tartan fortress”, First Hampden, about half a mile from where Hampden Park sits today in south Glasgow, is widely considered the world’s first purpose-built international football stadium. Many features now commonplace in grounds around the world – including season tickets, turnstiles and pavilions – have long been thought to have originated there.

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