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Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland

Sport and Leisure

16/08/2011

Scotland is a sporting nation. We are credited with the invention of golf and curling, the first international football and rugby union games were played in Glasgow and Edinburgh in the early 1870s (Scotland vs England), and it was a Scotsman by the name of Kirkpatrick Macmillan who invented the bicycle.

RCAHMS holds millions of items relating to the history of the built environment in Scotland, and the collections contain a wide variety of items on swimming pools, ice rinks, football stadiums and other sporting venues as well as many images of sportsmen and women themselves. These include historic photographs, architectural plans, engravings and sketches, modern survey photographs and drawings, and modern and historical aerial photographs.

RCAHMS is participating in Edinburgh Doors Open Day on Saturday 24 September 2011 and, ahead of next year's London Olympics, the theme this year is sport. Whether your style is skating on an ice covered loch, standing amongst the crowds in a football stadium, or taking a bike ride in fancy dress, there will be something for everyone, so come in and find out more about Scotland's sport and leisure through the ages. Examples from our collections that will be displayed on the day can be viewed below.