Palmerston Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the stadium in Scotland. For the park in Dublin, see Palmerston Park, Dublin.
Palmerston Park is a multi-use stadium in Dumfries, Scotland. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Queen of the South F.C.. The stadium holds 6,412 people.It also holds the record of having the tallest free standing floodlights in scottish football.
Of the 6,412 capacity, there are 3,509 seats. There have been many changes in the ground since it was first opened in 1919, most notably the removal of the "coo shed" which was replaced by a new all seater stand, adjacent to the town's Ice Bowl.
Across from this all seater stand is the traditional "old" stand. This is a small, classic looking covered seating stand, where the seating area is raised. There are standing terraces for fans to the left, right and in front of this stand.
The Portland Drive Terrace (home end) is a traditional standing area, reminiscent of all UK football grounds prior to the Hillsborough disaster. At the other end of the ground stands the Terregles Street end. This was historically the away supporters end, but this has now sadly been closed and has fallen in to disrepair. This is the only blip on what is otherwise a nice little stadium.
There are plans afoot to make Palmerston Park in to a 6,000 all seater stadium which would allow Queen Of The South access to the Scottish Premier League (SPL), should they ever win the Scottish League First Division. The 6,000 seats is the minimum requirement to join this league. For this to happen, the Terregles Street end would be demolished and a new all seater stand erected. Similarly, the Portland Drive terrace would be made in to an all seater stand.
Crowds for Queen Of The South fixtures are normally below 2,000 people unless there is a cup game or such like against higher league opposition. The first league game against local rivals Gretna FC at the end of August 2006 however, attracted almost 5,500 spectators which was Queen's highest league attendance since 2002.