The Future of the Clach Ground

Clachnacuddin Football Club have recently approached the Highland Council’s Area officials in a bid to secure Common Good Fund backing, (a reserve designated for projects which benefit the people of the town), as part of a move to repurchase the Grant Street Park. The lease of the Park has little over a year left and for a club which has it’s roots and proud traditions in the Merkinch area for well over 100 years, it could spell the end of an era.

The club has told the council that the viability of the Clach Social Club will be in jeopardy if the club ground was not next door. General Manager, Peter Corbett, said "Both the Club and the Park are a great community focus, we have our gala day in July for instance, and in fact we would actually like to see more community projects and events take place. We’ve been here for the last 112 years and it really is the heart of our community, I just hope the Highland Council will appreciate our situation."

The late Dan Corbett, an Inverness Councillor, who did much for the Merkinch area, maybe summed up the relationship between the community and Clach football club in this poem he wrote to his son Billy:

"Clachnacuddin. A Magical word,
It means everything to me.
Another ‘fanatic’ you may think,
But I’m a Merkinch boy you see.
It’s not just the thrills of a Saturday game,
Though a win for the ‘Lilies’ delights me,
In training night, or any night
In Grant Street Park you’ll find me.
It would be vain to try and explain,
Just what it all means to me,
I only know that when I go,
It’s another home for me.
Oh! The comradeship and the team spirit
Shown by each one and all,
If only the world was full of such things,
I would welcome the Caley and all.
Some games we will wish to remember,
And some we will want to forget,
All previous games and famous names,
Seem important as the games to come yet.
So try and forgive this ‘fanatic’,
If it’s just the one colour I see’,
And get out and fight - be a Lily white,
And a Merkinch boy, LIKE ME..........."

Extracted from Merkinch Revisted (1992)