Bill Briceland and Derek Muir started Caledonian Football Club in 1985 with the objective of providing an opportunity for, and to encourage the participation of, young people in football and other sporting and social activities. Starting from a handful of boys from the Prestwick area, a need for the club became apparent and the numbers quickly grew. Now one of the biggest clubs of its kind in the
West of Scotland the club now caters for both boys and girls and also operates an amateur team. Its members come from all over Ayrshire from a wide variety of social backgrounds. In January 1991, the club were invited to attend a meeting of the School Board of Prestwick Academy to discuss a joint use agreement in relation to the playing fields at Academy Park, Shawfarm Road, Prestwick. At that time the club were finding it difficult to arrange football matches due to the lack of local authority pitches in the area. The football pitches at the school also doubled as hockey pitches and the hockey players complained about the condition of the playing surface after football matches had taken place. The alternative was for the footballers to use Academy Park playing fields, which belonged to the school but were further away and had no changing facilities. The playing fields up until then had not been used for a number of years. After several meetings and considerable discussion it was agreed that the club would be granted a lease by the then Strathclyde Regional Council for the use of Academy Park. In return the club would provide changing facilities which would be also be used by the school. The original facilities consisted of second-hand portable buildings, which formed six changing rooms, a referee’s room, a meeting room kitchen, showers and toilets. The club further developed the site with ground being levelled to create two full size pitches and two seven a side pitches. Funding for this came from the Football Trust, the Scottish Sports Council, the Foundation for Sports and the Arts and a considerable amount of fund-raising by the club. Always looking to improve the facilities the club applied to the
Sportscotland Lottery Fund for funding. Following a successful bid and the award of a £300k grant from Sportscotland and a grant of £20k from South Ayrshire Council, the club built a new sports pavilion at Academy Park.
