Bogside


Bogside Racecourse stood on the flat land beside the River Irvine in Ayrshire, a few miles from the coast, and for more than a century it was one of Scotland’s most distinctive racing venues. Racing there can be traced back to the eighteenth‑century Marymass meetings, but the formal course took shape in the early 1800s and developed into a right‑handed, undulating triangle of roughly two miles. It staged both Flat and National Hunt racing, with a steeplechase course that included open ditches and a water jump, and its sandy soil gave it a reputation for naturally firm ground.

Its greatest fame came from hosting the Scottish Grand National. When the race left Houston in 1867, Bogside became its home for almost a hundred years. Horses such as Southern Hero and Queen’s Taste turned the place into a piece of Scottish sporting folklore with their multiple wins, and the final running there in 1965 went to Brasher. Crowds once arrived by train at the dedicated Bogside Race Course station, which sat just a short walk from the stands.

The course's decline came abruptly when the Levy Board withdrew financial support in the mid‑1960s. Bogside closed after its April 1965 meeting, and the Scottish Grand National moved to Ayr the following year. The grandstands were demolished and the railway station closed soon after, but the outline of the old track can still be traced in the fields and golf‑course land that now occupy the site, a quiet reminder of a racecourse that once held Scotland's biggest jumping race.




Winners at Bogside (1)

Date Horse Race
Jockey
17Apr64
Ravenspark Selling Handicap
LG Brown
17 April 1964
Ravenspark Selling Handicap
LG Brown