Murrayfield Stadium – Scotland

Murrayfield is the home of the Scottish Rugby Union, and the biggest stadium in Scotland. Located in the suburb of Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Murrayfield Stadium hosts the majority of the Scottish national team’s home games and is also the home stadium for Edinburgh’s professional club franchise, the Edinburgh Rugby Club.

Murrayfield Stadium Stats

Built: 1925
Capacity: 67,800
Owner: Scottish Rugby Union
Home side: Scotland

Murrayfield Stadium Overview

While the Scottish rugby team occasionally ventures to Glasgow for games at Ibrox, the majority of the team’s home games are played at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. The stadium is located in Scotland’s rugby heartland, and is within close range to the borders regions where rugby thrives.

As the biggest and most modern stadium in Scotland, Murrayfield has hosted a number of other major sports events, including football matches, rugby league finals and major concerts. The cost incurred by renovating the stadium has been blamed as the source of the Scottish Rugby Union’s recent financial difficulties.

The Murrayfield Experience

While Murrayfield tends to echo during club matches, the stadium is always packed to the rafters with a knowledgeable local crowd for Six Nations encounters. Scottish rugby fans come out in full force for the tournament, and hold the record for the largest ever crowd to attend a rugby international in Europe, with over 100,000 fans turning out to watch Scotland take on Wales in the 1975 Five Nations.

Murrayfield Stadium History

During the early years of the Home Nations championship, the Scottish rugby team played the majority of their home games in the affluent suburb of Inverleith. However, by the turn of the century, the increasing popularity of the sport prompted the Scottish Rugby Union to go in search of a more suitable site for hosting international rugby matches.

The SRU chose to build their new Stadium on open ground in Murrayfield, and by 1925 construction of the Murrayfield Stadium had been completed. The Scottish celebrated the occasion by defeating England at their new home base and taking its first ever Five Nations grand slam.

Murrayfield underwent extensive renovations in 1995 at a cost of over £50 million to the Scottish Rugby Union. The renovations resulted in Murrayfield being brought in line with other top European rugby stadiums, and included the installation of floodlights which facilitated night matches for the first time in the history of the sport in Scotland.