Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland football stadiums overview

Football Ground Guide currently has 14 in-depth stadium guides for grounds located within Northern Ireland, one of which is Windsor Park – the country’s national stadium as well as the home of Linfield. 

Of those 14 grounds, a total of nine are the homes of current Northern Irish Premier League sides – the highest division in the Northern Irish Football League. The remaining five are for stadiums of teams which have, at some point in their history, played in the top flight but now compete in the lower divisions. 

That being said, all 14 can currently be found on this page of the site, organised in alphabetical order based on the teams that call them home. 

By Region/City

Northern Ireland is a fairly small country and Belfast, its capital city, is incredibly important to its football culture as a result. In total, four of the current twelve teams competing in the top flight are located within the city – that’s a percentage of 33.33%

That leaves just eight teams spread across the rest of the country, making local derbies for those sides fairly hard to come by, in the league that is anyway. 

Belfast

With that in mind, Belfast is understandably our starting point when looking at major cities and their respective football teams. 

Since the Northern Irish Premier League was formed in its current state in 2008, four of the five teams to have lifted the trophy play their football in Belfast – including Linfield, who have won a whopping 8 league titles in that time. 

The full list of Belfast-based football teams on the Football Ground Guide site is:

• Linfield – Windsor Park
• Cliftonville – Solitude
• Crusaders – Seaview
• Glentoran – The Oval 

County Down

Now, instead of looking at the distribution of football teams in other Northern Irish major cities, it is slightly simpler to group them based on counties due to how spread out they are. 

A full list of ground guides for teams located within County Down is as follows:

• Ards – Bangor Fuels Town 
• Warrenpoint Town – Milltown

County Antrim

A full list of ground guides for teams located within County Antrim is as follows:

• Ballymena United – Showgrounds
• Larne – Inver Park

County Londonderry

A full list of ground guides for teams located within County Londonderry is as follows:

• Coleraine – The Showgrounds
• Derry City  – Ryan McBride Stadium (Play their football in the Irish Football League and can be found in the Republic of Ireland ground guides)

County Armagh

A full list of ground guides for teams located within County Armagh is as follows:

• Glenavon – Mourneview Park
• Newry City – The Showgrounds

County Tyrone

A full list of ground guides for teams located within County Tyrone is as follows:

• Dungannon – Stangmore Park

County Fermanagh

A full list of ground guides for teams located within County Fermanagh is as follows:

• Ballinamallard United – Ferney Park

What are Northern Ireland stadiums like?

Given that Windsor Park, the national stadium of Northern Ireland, has a capacity of just 18,500, you may not be surprised to learn that there is currently just one ground in the top flight with a capacity that exceeds the 10,000  mark. 

For a point of reference, Crusaders – the second most successful team in terms of top-flight titles, play in a stadium with a capacity of 3,383. 

While this naturally means that the facilities at many of these venues are far from revolutionary. The compact designs do allow fans to create truly fantastic atmospheres every week – something which you just don’t get with the bigger grounds across Europe. 

Key stats

Biggest stadiums in Northern Ireland

As stated, size isn’t where stadiums shine in Northern Ireland and the country’s national stadium is comfortably the largest, holding approximately 18,500 seats. 

The next biggest ground from a capacity perspective is Glentoran’s The Oval, which can accommodate up to 10,000 supporters for any given match. 

A list of the top five biggest football stadiums in Northern Ireland is as follows:

• Windsor Park – 18,500
• The Oval 10,000
• Mourneview Park – 9,000
• Solitude – 8,000
• Showgrounds – 8,000

Best atmosphere

Virtually every single stadium in Northern Ireland has a relatively good atmosphere on matchday due to their compact designs, which places fans extremely close to the pitch in most cases. 

One of the standout grounds, however, is Windsor Park – particularly during international matches for the Northern Ireland national team. The combination of having the largest capacity and being full of passionate supporters makes matchday at the ground an unforgettable experience. 

Other notable stadiums with good atmospheres include Solitude, The Oval, and Mourneview Park. 

Oldest and most recent stadiums

We are once again heading to Belfast, as all three of the oldest grounds in the country are located within the city. The oldest stadium currently in use in the Northern Irish Premier League is Solitude, which first opened in 1890 and has been the home of Cliftonville ever since. 

Just behind Solitude is Glenavon’s Mourneview Park, which was opened just two years later in 1892. Behind those two is Windsor Park, which has been in use since 1905, but only became the national stadium when Casement Park was closed in 2013. 

At the other end of the scale, we have a draw for the newest football stadium in Northern Ireland’s top flight. Both Ferney Park and Strangmore Park were originally opened in 1975 – no venues have been opened since. 

Past major European football matches in Northern Ireland

2021 UEFA Super Cup

Unfortunately, Northern Ireland does not have much history when it comes to hosting major European football matches and until very recently, had never done so. 

However, that changed in 2021 when Windsor Park in Belfast hosted the 2021 UEFA Super Cup contested between Champions League winners Chelsea and Europa League winners Villarreal. 

It was an incredibly historic moment, and English outfit Chelsea eventually won on penalties. 

Euro 2028

With Ireland and the United Kingdom’s bid to host Euro 2028 successful, Casement Park was initially put forward as a potential selection for one of the 10 hosting venues. However, a project to secure funding for the ground’s refurbishment and ultimate reopening for the tournament was rejected by the government. 

The Northern Irish FA are now pushing for a different stadium to host matches at Euro 2028, but it remains unclear whether that will be accepted by UEFA.