UCD Bowl

Tucked into the Belfield campus at Sports Centre, Belfield, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, the ground still carries the name locals gave it before the rebuild: Belfield Bowl.

What changed in 2007 wasn't the site but the scale of it. A grant of €1.25 million from the Sports Capital Fund took a modest college pitch with 860 seats and expanded it to a 3,000-capacity venue, and UCD AFC moved in for the 2008 League of Ireland season. The grass has stayed grass throughout — no hybrid surface, no artificial pitch, just the same natural turf the club has always played on.

UCD AFC and UCD Rugby Football Club share the tenancy, the latter competing in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League, but the Bowl earns its keep beyond its own tenants. The Irish rugby team has trained here, as have touring sides including the All Blacks, and the venue found itself on a bigger stage in 2017 when it hosted pool matches at the Women's Rugby World Cup, among them the opening game between England and Spain. Two years later it staged fixtures at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship. American football has its own foothold too, with the Shamrock Bowl final, Ireland's championship decider, regularly played here.

The record crowd came only recently: 2,236 for an FAI Cup quarter-final between UCD and Bohemian F.C. on 13 September 2024, a reminder that this university ground can still pull a proper cup-tie crowd when the draw sends the right visitors through the gate.