Peffermill Playing Fields

I have been to Peffermill a good few times to play football for the football supporters club. Although never really joining the team properly, I came along whenever they were a player short or needed some depth in the squad. I normally played in a five a side team that was not actually part of the uni and played at the Corn Exchange.
I normally played on the astroturf pitches here and this means that you can never get a game to be abandoned throughout the year. The pitches were good quality and the changing room facilities were good too.
The worst thing about Peffermill is that it is a bit of a mission to get to, but this can’t really be helped as there really isn’t many other sports facilities more central than this.

Peffermill is easily accessible from Edinburgh bus routes, with multiple services running to the Centre from North Bridge. It boasts over a dozen grass football pitches, 2 artificial pitches with flood-​lighting, as well as rugby, cricket and lacrosse facilities. As one of many similar sports facilities dotted around Edinburgh, Peffermill has a number of advantages over its competitors.
The changing rooms are spacious, clean and secure, which is refreshing. The grass pitches that I saw were of good quality, and though there was some damage to the grass (a 2m square was bald) the general state of the pitches was better than many other similar ones. The grass was cut and seemed relatively well cared for.
One particularly interesting feature of Peffermill is the burn running between the side of the grass football pitches and the cricket pitch. Fishing the football out of the stream using the net on the end of a 7 metre long pole was an excellent way to keep substitutes warmed up, and though the team did lose a ball in the vegetation, it was probably worth the entertainment value of watching one poor defender fall in entirely, much to the crowd’s (and referee’s!) amusement. Aside from the water feature, Peffermill is otherwise one of the best (and most popular) options in Edinburgh

I’ve only got a few minor issues wit Peffermill, but other than that it’s a great place for playing football, rugby or hockey. My first problem isn’t its fault, but it’s so far away from where I live! In the first semester I was down here two days a week at least to play rugby and by the time I got home in the afternoon I was shattered just from the walking, let alone the rugby. My other problem is that sometimes the communication amongst the staff down there is pretty poor. They once let the team captain know that the ground was too hard to play on twenty minutes before kick-​off!
Other than that there are plenty of clean, spacious changing rooms, the schedule is well organised with wall-​mounted computer screens telling you exactly where you should be and the pitches are always in decent condition. Peffers is a great place to play and specate. Further, the bar upstairs, although a rip off, is a great place to chill out with your team after a match.

If you play sports with the university then the chance is that you will play here at some point. The main centre has some fabulous dressing rooms — though for my small Wednesday league team the small hut on the other side tends to be where our dressing rooms are to be found. Even these, though, are reasonable enough, although you will still be a little envious of those in the main centre.
As for the pitches you have some Astroturf pitches, generally used for hockey games. I have played football on these and though I might be biased by that fact that we have never won on these, I’m not a great fan. I will, however, concede that as Astroturf pitches go, these are some of the best.
Moving onto the grass, and this is always a move I am keen to make, the pitches are all good. That said, bar one small pitch on the other side of the railway that I like to refer to as Highbury, the wind can really drive across these pitches; on a cold and wet day you are really going to notice this.