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The Forest Pitch near Selkirk

A unique football pitch has been formed in an area of spruce forest on the Buccleuch Estate near Selkirk by Craig Coulthard, one of twelve artists who won commissions to celebrate the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival. Trees were cleared in Clarilawmuir Plantation to make space for a full size pitch with wood used in the construction of a pavilion and a rail around the pitch. Two matches were played on the pitch made up of Scotland-based amateur players both male and female over eighteen who have recently moved to the country. The four teams were named after the locations of the PanHellenic Games in ancient Greece, Corinth, Delphi, Nemea and Olympia and these poles on the southeast side of the pitch have been marked to reflect this. Seedlings will be sown into the white lines of the pitch and more spruce trees planted to reclaim the land. The £460,000 cost of the project for a one-off game has proved to be somewhat controversial. For more information on this project, see Link and for an aerial view of the pitch, see Link