Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Event ID 560668
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/560668
Though long disused, Earlston Race Course is still shown on the current edition of the Ordnance Survey 1:10000 map. On the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map of Berwickshire, surveyed in 1871, the site was even known as the 'Old Race Course', indicating that it was of some antiquity.
In Britain, the first recorded horse races date to the late seventeenth century. These appear to have been informal arrangements made between individual owners, and it was not until well into the eighteenth century that horse racing became truly established as an organised sport.
Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project
