North Stand, Somerset Park Stadium, Ayr

Client - Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd

An exciting and ambitious new stand for Ayr United Football Club.

Working alongside Denham Youd Architects and Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd, we were involved with the delivery of the new award-winning North Stand at Ayr United’s Somerset Park Stadium.

We provided civil and structural engineering consultancy services on the development, which features a 748-seater stand beneath a cantilevered steel roof.

The scheme also included a plush new hospitality suite catering for 220 guests, integrated within the structure. In addition, the club’s operations centre now occupies purpose-built offices built within the new stand.

The new stand has wheelchair access throughout, electric vehicle infrastructure, and indoor match-day space for players’ families.

A range of measures were implemented to reduce the demand for energy in the development. This included good levels of natural daylight throughout, the façade and layout of the building were designed to take advantage of solar gains in winter, excellent fabric performance for new thermal elements and openings to reduce heat loss, a high level of air tightness, and use of heat recovery technology.

We were previously involved with the Somerset Hub just outside the ground. This space houses the club shop, staff offices and an impressive supporters’ bar.

The club opened the new facility in summer 2024, just in time for the new football season. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held ahead of a pre-season friendly, marking a poignant moment as it coincided with the 100th anniversary of the opening of the main stand.

The project won the Best Sports Related Project award at the IStructE Scottish Regional Awards 2024.