Blairwood Park (Oakley United)

Just outside of Dunfermline was this little treasure that has every right to score a record low on this blog yet shines in the midst of adversity.

I’ll list the negatives. You can’t see any stands from the outside, in fact you can barely see anything from outside, there aren’t any turnstiles visible or even the all-important steps up into the ground. You can’t walk around it, and a little fenced off garden means you can’t even peer over it. My photos of the belly of Blairwood come from sticking my camera in the air (like I just don’t care – sorry, I couldn’t resist).

In fact pretty much all that’s visible of Blairwood Park for the passer-by is a retaining wall. But what a retaining wall it is. A beautiful ornate piece of stone with a simple painted notice of whose home this is makes it go from an infuriatingly invisible adventure to painfully quaint.

In all honesty the only other feature that was roughly visible from outside was a park bench perched within the grounds. There’s one at Alnwick Town’s St James’ Park and it’s always a surreal and homely addition.

Best of all? The sign outside trying to identify the solitary dog owner responsible for fouling the nearby area. No suggestion that it might be more than one person, just someone working alone. Brilliant.

Further online reading (and the slightest piece of visible evidence) points to a stand behind the wall, but it would be impossible to mark it and award it points here. Harsh, but that’s not what we’re about here.

So is it suitable for the tourist? It depends. For me, that one little wall made it wonderfully worthwhile, but if that’s not to your tastes then absolutely not. It’s close enough to Dunfermline to make sense though. I’d give it a slightly shaky but definitely there thumbs up.

 

———