Ravenhill Stadium

Listen first. On a match night the sound arrives before the stadium does. It drifts over the red-brick terraces of south Belfast, a low roar that rises and falls with every tackle. Before kick-off you may smell chips and vinegar from the food stalls, and feel a damp wind coming off the nearby River Lagan. This is Ravenhill, the home ground of Ulster Rugby. For about a century, people have walked these same streets toward the same floodlights.

You may see a different name on the signs. Since 2014 the ground has carried the name of a sponsor, the building materials company Kingspan. Many local supporters still call it Ravenhill, after the road that runs past its gates. Both names point to the same patch of ground. In this guide we will mostly use the old one, because that is the name you will hear in the pubs and on the pavements around you.

The ground sits in a residential corner of south-east Belfast. That is the first surprise for many visitors. There is no ring road and no ocean of car parks. Instead, the stands rise between ordinary houses, corner shops and small churches. On match days, families walk here from nearby streets, and Ormeau Park, one of the city's older public parks, lies a short walk away. The stadium belongs to its neighbourhood in a very physical way.

Rugby has been played here since the early twentieth century. The ground was developed by the Ulster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union, the body that runs the sport across the whole island of Ireland. That detail matters. In Irish rugby, players from Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Galway have long played together in one national team. For decades, Ravenhill was one of the places where that all-island team played its home matches.

Ireland played international matches here until the 1950s. Then the national team moved its home games to Dublin, and for many years the big international days went south. Ravenhill became the home of the provincial side, Ulster, instead. Ireland did return in 2007, for a warm-up match before that year's Rugby World Cup. For older supporters, it was a moving moment. The national team was back on Belfast grass after a gap of half a century.

The proudest chapter in this ground's story came in the late 1990s. Rugby had only recently become a professional sport. A new European competition, now remembered as the Heineken Cup, brought clubs from France, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland together. In the 1998 to 1999 season, Ulster went on an unexpected run. They beat the French side Stade Français in a semi-final here at Ravenhill. Then they won the final in Dublin, becoming champions of Europe.

People who were here for that semi-final still describe the noise. That season also gave Ulster supporters their anthem. Listen on a match day and you may hear it: a slow chant of "Stand Up for the Ulstermen". It begins in one corner and spreads around the ground until thousands of people are on their feet. If you are here at a game, do not be shy. Visitors are welcome to stand and join in.

For much of its life, Ravenhill was a modest place. It had grassy banks, open terraces and old stands that let the rain blow straight through. Then came a long programme of rebuilding, completed around 2014. New stands went up on several sides, and the capacity grew to roughly eighteen thousand. Look at the stands now and you will notice they are steep and close to the pitch. Even from the back rows, you feel near the players.

Here is a second detail many visitors miss. Look closely at the playing surface. Since the late 2010s, Ulster has played on an artificial pitch rather than natural grass. In a city known for its rain, this keeps the surface usable through long wet winters. It also means the ground can host community events and training sessions more often. Some rugby purists grumbled at first. Today, the bright, even green looks the same in December as it does in May.

Ravenhill has also hosted big occasions beyond Ulster's own fixtures. In 2017, the semi-finals and the final of the Women's Rugby World Cup were played here. New Zealand beat England in that final, in front of a large and loud Belfast crowd. For many young players in Northern Ireland, those matches were their first chance to see the best women's teams in the world. It was a sign of how the ground's role keeps widening.

As you walk around the outside, watch for the memorial near the entrance. Like many sports grounds in Britain and Ireland, Ravenhill remembers players connected to the game who died in the First World War. Rugby clubs lost many members in that conflict. The memorial is easy to pass in a hurry, especially on a busy match day. It is worth a quiet moment. Read the inscription yourself and look at the care that has gone into keeping it.

On match days, the streets around the ground change completely. Supporters in white shirts fill the pavements, and you will hear many accents from every part of Northern Ireland. Children sit on shoulders. Older fans greet each other by name, as they have done for decades. There is rarely trouble here. Rugby in this part of the world has long drawn supporters from different communities, and the friendly, family atmosphere is one of the things people notice most.

So take a moment where you are standing now. Look up at the curve of the stands against the Belfast sky. Notice the terraced houses that crowd right up to the ground, and the chimneys beyond them. Perhaps you can hear a distant bus on the Ravenhill Road, or a training whistle inside. When you walk away, look back once. Those floodlights will be visible above the rooftops for a long way... just as they have been for generations of supporters.