Harraby Park Stadium
Carlisle, Cumbria, England
Harraby Park Stadium, Carlisle, England — opened 1928, 5 rugby league games hosted, home of Carlisle City -- a rugby league club admitted to the Northern Rugby Football League for the 1928-29 season only, not to be confused with the modern Carlisle RLFC (founded later, playing from 1988-89 at the successor ground Gillford Park, built on the same site after Harraby Park was demolished)..
Ground facts
| Opened | 1928 (Opened as a greyhound racing stadium (first meeting 9 June 1928); the rugby league tenant, Carlisle City, played its only season there that same year.) |
| Home club | Carlisle City -- a rugby league club admitted to the Northern Rugby Football League for the 1928-29 season only, not to be confused with the modern Carlisle RLFC (founded later, playing from 1988-89 at the successor ground Gillford Park, built on the same site after Harraby Park was demolished). |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 5 |
| Top recorded crowd | 0 |
| Capacity | Approximately 70,000, with a 5,000-seat all-seated grandstand as the main focal point, per a single greyhound-racing history source -- not corroborated elsewhere, and a very large figure for a venue of this type and era, so treated with caution. |
| Floodlights installed | Not stated in any source found. |
| Surface | Not explicitly stated; presumed grass. |
| First rugby league match | 25 Aug 1928 -- Northern Rugby League 1928/29: Carlisle 3 def by Wigan Highfield 10 |
| Last rugby league match | 27 Oct 1928 -- Northern Rugby League 1928/29: Carlisle 13 def by Warrington 36 (confirmed via direct re-fetch of Rugby League Project's results table as a home Harraby Park fixture, resolving an apparent conflict with a secondary account describing this match as played away at Wilderspool) |
| Years used | 1928 |
| Location | Carlisle, Cumbria |
Name history
- Harraby Park Stadium / Harraby Greyhound Stadium — 1928-1928, demolished after Carlisle City folded
Rugby league history
Carlisle City played only 10 league games total (5 home, all at Harraby Park, 5 away) before withdrawing from the league on 8 November 1928, having won just 1 and lost 9 -- a season that "plummeted the club into financial ruin" per a greyhound-racing history source, directly explaining why all 5 recorded rugby league matches fall within this single year. Greyhound racing itself, the venue's primary purpose, ceased at the site on 4 October 1928, even before the rugby club folded. The stadium was later demolished; Gillford Park was built in its place and became the modern Carlisle RLFC's home ground from 1988-89. Some perimeter wall and banking reportedly survive from the 1920s stadium.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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