I like all football, but I particularly love and care about Scottish football. However, what fascinates me most of all about the game are the grounds in which the game is played. Football grounds matter – they are the places where the mutual love of our game is played out but are also places of emotion. As someone whose emotions are always bubbling just below the surface, that matters to me – football grounds are among few places where it is both safe and expected that those varying emotions should be released.
These places also matter architecturally. Recent building trends have been for grounds to become more standardized and look similar to each other, but there are still differences if you look for them. And smaller grounds matter as much as the big ones, which is why this site aims to cover grounds at all levels.
I started using my small drone to photograph some grounds from above, and it quickly developed into a project to photograph as many grounds as I could. The list is far from complete and my aim is to get around more grounds when time allows.
On my last few visits to Hampden, I’ve been captivated by the old aerial photos of the ground that are on display in the main stand concourse. The black and white image of a full ground, before the West terrace was covered, is absolutely glorious. I’m glad someone did go to the trouble to take that because it’s a great piece of Scottish football history. The aerial photos here might not have the same power, but I hope they’re still worthwhile.