Study tour: Sport in the community in Scotland
Drumsheugh Baths in Edinburgh dating back to 1882. Foto: Visit Scotland/Kenny Lam.
Edinburgh and Stirling, Scotland 20th - 22nd May 2025
Invitation:
Join the study tour of IdrætsPlatformen Danmark/SportsHub Denmark for Danish and European sports leaders to inspiring examples of sport in the community in Scotland.
The tour is open for managers of sports and leisure facilities, sports organisation, public administration in sports and leisure as well as representatives of NGO’s working with sport and social enterprise.
There will be plenty of time for networking in the group and with our Scottish hosts. Join a group of professionals working in sport and leisure from Denmark and other European countries.
In Scotland we are looking for inspiration about the integration of sport in the community and social enterprises, local sports facilities, outdoor recreation, professional sports clubs, and sports governing bodies.
The program of the tour is selected to inspire the Scandinavian club based welfare models in sport by learning about new entrepreneurial models for operation of sports and leisure facilities, local partnerships, fundraising, and delivery of sports programs for special target groups.
Practical information
Information and registration:
Please use this link to find the full program of the study tour with practical information.
Guide:
Henrik H. Brandt, independent consultant in sports and leisure and manager of the association IdrætsPlatformen Danmark/Sports Hub Denmark. Henrik is a former director of the Danish Institute for Sports Studies and a former board member of the Observatory for Sport in Scotland. Henrik worked in sport and leisure in various positions for more than 30 years.
Registration:
For practical reasons we ask for your registration no later than 1st April. Please inform us earlier if you expect to register for the tour. The tour will go ahead with a minimum of 15 participants.
Price:
Member of IdrætsPlatformen Danmark, DKK 4.100
Member of the IUCE-network, DKK 4.600
Standard participant, DKK 5.100
The price includes two nights in standard business hotel in Stirling incl breakfast, local transportation, meals, guide, program, and visits. Meals include one drink.
Accommodation:
Premier Inn Stirling South, Glasgow Road, Stirling FK7 8EX.
Don’t forget to bring:
Passport, travel documents, and pocket money. Please make sure you have your own travel insurance for business travel. Bring solid footwear and a raincoat (for an easy hill walk), shoes and sportswear for (optional) five-a-side football, or a morning run.
Transport to and from Scotland:
Transportation to and from Scotland is your own responsibility. The tour begins and ends at Edinburgh Airport/Edinburgh city centre.
The program is adapted to Norwegian’s schedule from Copenhagen to Edinburgh on the 20th May, 06.55. For the return trip an option would be Edinburgh-Copenhagen 15.10 (with a possibility for an onwards connection to Aalborg). You can also stay some extra hours in Edinburgh and take the 20.30 connection to Copenhagen.
Information:
Henrik H. Brandt, henrik.brandt@idraetsplatformen.dk,
Tel. +45 29210972
www.idraetsplatformen.dk
Program
(Subject to minor changes, latest update 3rd March 2025)
Tuesday, 20th May 2025
Arrival at Edinburgh Airport: Take the tram or the airport shuttle from the airport to the city centre. Drumsheugh Bath Club is located 10 minutes by foot from the tram stop West End. Grab some lunch before we meet.
11.30-12.30: Observatory for Sport in Scotland
Meeting point: Drumsheugh Baths Club, 5 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3BL
An introduction to the Scottish sports landscape. Scotland is the birthplace of golf and home of famous sports clubs and great traditions in sport, but underneath this charming surface, Scotland is a “divided sporting nation” separated into sporting “haves” and “have nots,” and separated by issues of opportunity and inequality. In recent years heavy financial cuts have affected the city councils, meaning that the gaps have become even larger. In this challenging landscape, however, creativity among social enterprises, community leisure centres, and sports federations is thriving. We will learn from the best examples of vibrant community sport initiatives as well as the challenges facing the Scottish sporting landscape.
Charlie Raeburn, founder, and Michael Ross, chair Observatoire for Sport in Scotland
12.30-13.45: Drumsheugh Baths Club
Meeting point: 5 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3BL
Built in 1882 as a Turkish baths and swimming bath, the Drumsheugh Baths have a special atmosphere and architecture, which is the home of a vibrant swimming community. Volunteers play a key role in maintaining the bath and organising a wide range of activities for the members without receiving any public funding. How can a community-oriented swimming club be sustainable without public funding? How can the community around the baths be a vibrant social and educational hub, where members take a wide range of initiatives way beyond the core activity of swimming. While Drumsheugh Baths is a fascinating story, it also tells a story of a country where the public provision of sports facilities lacks far behind the Scandinavian level. The situation creates an increasing social segregation in the Scottish sporting landscape.
Charlie Raeburn, founder of the Observatory of Sport in Scotland and committee member of Drumsheugh Baths
13.45-14.15: Transport on foot
(10 minutes on foot)
14.15-15.30: Table Tennis Scotland – much more than a sport
Meeting point: Edinburgh Sports Club, 7 Belford Pl, Edinburgh EH4 3DH
Just like in Denmark table tennis is a small sport in Scotland, but nevertheless table tennis Scotland is on a journey to deliver table tennis in new formats, new locations, and settings. Table tennis has become a sport for people of all abilities and for all age groups. Learn more about the strategic visions to grow table tennis outside the traditional club settings and to become a preferred sport for elderly and people with health challenges such as Parkinson or dementia. Table Tennis Scotland has been hugely successful in retaining or maintaining senior players. The largest age group of registered table tennis players in Scotland is now +60. In the session we will also learn more about the Scottish sports system with national governing bodies supported by the national agency sportscotland.
Richard Yule, Chief Operating Officer of Table Tennis Scotland
Coffee and light refreshments
15.30-16.30: Edinburgh Sports Club
Edinburgh Sports Club, 7 Belford Pl, Edinburgh EH4 3DH
Edinburgh Sports Club is a private rackets club in the heart of Edinburgh’s West End with six squash courts, three floodlit tennis courts, three brand new floodlit padel courts, a hardball doubles court, first class table-tennis facility, a gym, bar, restaurant and barbecue area. We will get a brief tour and introduction to the club that is run entirely on membership fees and private contributions.
16.30-18.00: A walk in the New Town of Edinburgh
Time off to explore Edinburgh’s busy city centre.
18.15-19.00: Transfer by bus to Stirling
Accommodation at the Premier Inn Stirling South
Glasgow Road, Stirling FK7 8EX
19.45: Departure by foot from the hotel
20.00: Dinner
The Hollybank, 58 Glasgow Rd, Stirling FK7 0PH (tbc)
Traditional Scottish food
We will walk back from the restaurant, app. 2 km.
Wednesday, 21st May 2025
08.45-09.00: Departure to the starting point of the Dumyat Hill Walk from Premier Inn Stirling South
09.00-12.00: Mountaineering Scotland, walk and talk
Meeting point: Dumyat Car Park
Scotland’s nature is an invitation to physical activity and outdoor recreation. Mountaineering Scotland represents hill walkers, climbers, mountaineering and snowsports tourers in Scotland. The aim of the organisation is to inspire and encourage people to enjoy the physical and mental benefits of walking, climbing and mountaineering in Scotland's hills, mountains and climbing venues, through affordable skills training and information campaigns to promote safety, self-reliance and the enjoyment of the mountain environment and indoor climbing walls. We will enjoy the Scottish landscape on a ‘walk and talk’ hill walk and learn more about the activities, partnerships, ideas, and challenges of promoting hill walking and outdoor recreation in Scotland.
Stuart Younie, CEO & Company Secretary, Mountaineering Scotland
Dumyat Hill. Discover Clackmannanshire / Damian Shields
12.00-13.00: Transport and Sandwich
13.00-15.00 Hearts FC
Meeting point: Tynecastle Park, Mcleod Street, Edinburgh EH11 2NL
Once a Premiership football club decides to use its local magnetism as a tool for social and economic good in its community, there are almost no limits to the programs and initiatives that can be developed. Heart of Midlothian FC runs a wide-reaching community sports program around its home ground Tynecastle Park and elsewhere in the Scottish capital. Learn more about the club and its vision and activities in sport and other areas such as social inclusion, diversity, mental and physical health, education, active citizenship, and social care.
Ann Park, director of community and partnerships, Hearts FC, Edinburgh
15.00-15.30: Transport by bus
15.30-17.00: Spartans Community Foundation
Meeting point: 94 Pilton Drive, Edinburgh EH5 2HF
Based in North Edinburgh, Spartans FC has developed into much more than a lower league football club. The Spartans Community Foundation is a charity and social enterprise that helps to improve the quality of people’s lives in a challenged neighborhood affected by poverty and deprivation. The club takes a heavy responsibility in youth work, schools, and health and wellbeing through football and a wide range of innovative programs, fundraising initiatives, as well as creative use of its football facility for the benefit of the local community. This is a football club taking social responsibility to an extent hardly known among Danish sports clubs.
Debbi McCulloch, CEO, Spartans Community Foundation
17.00-17.45: Transport to Stirling
19.00-22.00: Dinner
Downtown (tba)
Thursday 22nd May 2022
09.15-09.30: Transfer by bus to Active Stirling
09.30-11.15: Active Stirling and The PEAK leisure centre
Meeting point: Forthside Way, Sports Village, Forthside Way, Stirling FK8 1QZ
Active Stirling is a sports and leisure charitable trust, which delivers sport, physical activity, health, and wellbeing on behalf of Stirling Council. We will visit the organisation at its main venue The PEAK, where local clubs, citizens and other organisations can find activities for everyone to take part in: Fitness classes, gym sessions, swimming, skating, climbing, or racquet sports. We get to see the venue and learn about the operation of the facilities. Active Stirling will also give us an insight into its co-operation with Stirling city council and other partners as well as the many programs and classes delivered to kids, adults, and people with special needs.
Dougie Porteus, Interim Head of Sport, Physical Activity and Inclusion, Active Stirling
11.45-12.30: Transfer by bus to Community Leisure UK
12.30-13.30: Community Leisure UK
The Melting Pot, 15 Calton Road, Edinburgh
Most local authorities in the UK have outsourced their provision of leisure, sport, and/or culture services to private operators or to not-for-profit trusts. Community Leisure UK is the association for the community trusts who operate sports and culture facilities and very often develop targeted programs for the local population in sport and physical activity. Some trusts are doing very well despite being squeezed by public budget cuts and having to generate more income themselves. How do UK community trusts with a combined turnover of app. 2 bn. GBP a year find their way in a challenging landscape? Which role do the community trusts play in catering for clubs, sports events, as well as the general population? Who are the visitors, and which kind of programs and partnerships have proven successful?
Kirsty Cumming, CEO, Community Leisure UK
13.30: Walk by foot to airport transfer
Walk by foot to the Tram og airport shuttle to the airport (5 minutes by foot)
15:10: Flight option to Copenhagen and Aalborg
Norwegian flight to Copenhagen - with connection to Aalborg.
There is a later Norwegian connection to Copenhagen at 20:30 if you want to explore more of Edinburgh on your own.
Football pitch in Eriskay, Western Hebrides. Foto: Visit Scotland/Kenny Lam