Digging into the history of the beautiful game in Scotland

Instead, Third Lanark AC, a champion winning side and founder members of both the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Football League, stuttered and died in 1967.

And Cathkin Park, the site of the second Hampden Park and also former home of Queens Park, with its eerie, overgrown terracing became a poignant reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in the fickle world of football.

Now in a bid to reveal some of its glorious past, archaeologists are set to carry out a series of excavations at the historic football ground which it’s hoped will uncover some of its long-hidden features and artefacts from its heyday.

The excavations will see a series of trenches dug in the area of the original pavilion, grandstand and terraces in search of clues as to how they were originally constructed and evidence of the people who once gathered in them to support and play the beautiful game.

It’s hoped the exploration will help point researchers towards the location of the original centre spot, penalty spot, pitch outline and goal posts.

As well as seeking out archaeological remains of the football ground, the project will examine the area around Cathkin Park for any lingering traces of how it was once a focal point for some of the nation’s most important football fixtures.

The dig, which will span two weeks in June, follows a smaller scale excavation at the ground in 2017. Items uncovered then alerted archaeologists to the potential of further exploration.

It is also part of a wider effort to explore the origins of football in a square mile area of the Southside, which encompasses the first, second and third Hampden parks and Cathcart Cemetery, the final resting place for the architects of the ‘Scotch Game’, credited with teaching the world how to play football.

Dr Paul Murtagh, Senior Project Officer at Archaeology Scotland, said it’s hoped the latest excavation will uncover tangible evidence that helps to bring the story behind Third Lanark and the ground’s place in Scottish football history to life.

“The excavation in 2017 found the site of the pavilion of Third Lanark and some nice artefacts relating to the use of the building, including pieces of red and white china cups - Third Lanark played in a red and white strip.

“Some fans of the club were there at the time of the dig, and were very excited to see them.

“There were also some glass bottles which we think might have been used by the players after Third Lanark’s last game at the park,” he said.

The latest excavation will involve at least four trenches of around four metres by four metres and half a metre deep which will be hand dug and carefully sifted through.

Among the items the archaeology team expect to find are typical of the kind of things modern sports fans might carry – sweet wrappers, drinks containers, coins and tobacco products.

But they also hope the dig will reveal some details of how structures within the ground, such as the grandstand, were built, and how the park’s layout changed down the years.

Football has been linked to Cathkin Park since 1884 when it was built as the second Hampden Park. It was rented by Queen’s Park FC, whose first game at the ground in October 1884 against Dumbarton attracted 7,000 fans.

The ground went on to host nine Scottish Cup finals between 1885 and 1899, a series of finals for the Glasgow Cup and Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup and six Scotland international fixtures.

Third Lanark was founded in 1872 and moved to Cathkin Park in 1903. Highly successful and rarely out of the highest leagues in Scottish football, the club followed winning the league in 1903-04 season by beating Rangers 3-1 in the final of the Scottish Cup final the following year – its second cup win.

The side was so highly acclaimed that it went on to organise a tour of North America in 1921 with a number of guest players, leading to it being billed as a Scotland XI, and a later tour of South America when the team took on the Argentina national squad.

The side was managed by football legend Bill Shankly between 1957-59, but despite reaching European competition in 1961 its finances started to give cause for concern: players went unpaid and opposition clubs complained about not getting their share of gate money and cheques that bounced.

Third Lanark’s final victory was an away match against Clydebank attended by just 259 people – just hours earlier a Court of Session in Edinburgh had heard a petition to have the club liquidated over an outstanding £200 debt.

The club ceased to exist in July 1967, and eventually most of Cathkin Park’s structures were removed, leaving just the terraces around three sides of the ground.

The pitch, however, remains in use: the Jimmy Johnstone Academy uses the park for training and games, while the Third Lanark name lives in the form of Third Lanark AFC, which currently plays in the Central Scottish Amateur Football League.

The excavation will involve professional archaeologists from charity Archaeology Scotland working with paying participants who will be trained in archaeology techniques.
As part of the charity’s Historic Environment Scotland supported New Audience Project, refugees, asylum seekers, and local Glaswegians who have health and social issues will also be involved.

The project is also working with football heritage campaign group, The Hampden Collection. Launched in 2017, it hopes to preserve the story of how football evolved and flourished on Glasgow’s southside and took the passing game to the world.

Dr Murtagh said that it’s hoped the Cathkin Park excavation may solve some of the mysteries surrounding how football evolved in the area.

“You never know what you will find until you do it, hopefully there will be some nice stuff there,” he added.

“It’s a unique place.”