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Following the footsteps of Lisbon Lions – Jan Aage Fjørtof’s video from Seamill Hydro

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Jan Aage Fjørtoft, retired footballer, Media (NENT/Viaplay +ESPN and columnist BildZeitung)/ Adviser Sport/Business. Host/Moderator has over 318k followers on Twitter. Today he posted a Celtic related video from outside the Seamill Hydro and provides his followers with a narrative about the significance of the seaside hotel on the Ayrshire coast for Celtic under Jock Stein.

The Norwegian stands on the shore and talks about Stein preparing his players on the grass behind him and marvels that Stein’s Celtic becoming the first side from Britain to win the European Cup in 1967.

And Jan concludes his post by providing his followers with a link to an article about the Seamill Hydro and Celtic and of course you will know which website that comes from – the one you are reading at the moment!

READ IT HERE…Seamill Hydro: Celtic’s Training Camps of Old

Nowadays, Celtic travel to Dubai for warm weather training each winter. With big games coming up at other points in the season, the Hoops get down to business at their Lennoxtown Training Centre. However, in days of old, the Bhoys would head to Seamill for a couple of days of training away from the eyes of the press.

Many people think that Jock Stein was the first Manager to take his Celtic players to Seamill Hydro in the immediate days before cup finals and important European ties in the 1960s. A luxury stay at a splendid hotel on the Ayrshire coast was an ideal way to relax the mind and enjoy training away from the press who may swarm on Parkhead and then Barrowfield ahead of such a fixture. However, a report in the Dundee Courier in January 1949 stated that James McGrory took his Celtic team to train at “their favourite Seamill haunt.”

Training took place on the hotel’s back lawn, which was separated from the beach by a concrete wall. This meant that players would inevitably have to jump down to retrieve stray passes and shots, unless some young fans were watching and willing to assist. It was quite a peculiar environment for professional footballers to train in but was a welcome change of scenery.

In Jock Stein’s time at the club there was an unwritten rule that if the ball were to go in the sea, whoever had put in least effort or made the error would be sent in to get it. This was when training took place on the beach, which it sometimes did. Charlie Gallacher once cut his foot training on the sand, when he stood on a piece of glass and got a bus back to his home in the Gorbals as he couldn’t walk, yet beach training continued.

Bobby Lennox described Celtic as “one big happy family” when they were at Seamill and claims the atmosphere forged at the hotel helped develop the team spirit that would see them lift the European Cup. Meanwhile, Brian McClair spoke at a night hosted by Paul John Dykes in the Greenock Celtic Supporters Club and commented on trips to Seamill approximately 20 years after the Lisbon success. He said that trips to Seamill changed the mentality going into a game: “You immediately knew it was a big game if you were going to Seamill and everybody had to be on it.”

The tradition of staying at the hotel continued until the late 1990s and then evaporated. However, it is a place that remains synonymous with Celtic… even if the connection was soured for some in 2016, when a chef at the hotel faced disciplinary proceedings for sectarian comments that he posted on his Twitter account, labelling Celtic fans as “scum” along with a tirade of anti-Catholic abuse.

The hotel can be visited to this day and is surprisingly reasonably priced for a five star resort.

Liam Kelly

Much of the body of this text features in my  book, The Holy Grounds of Glasgow Celtic: A guide to Celtic landmarks & sites of interest. All proceeds from sales of the book go to Celtic FC Foundation – and it can be purchased by clicking HERE.

Here’s another article from The Celtic Star about Celtic at the Seamill Hydro…

Ask most celtic fans what they know about the Seamill Hydro and they will tell you it was the home anyway from home for Celtic from the 1960s up until the late 1990s, a luxury retreat on the Ayrshire cost for players and staff to relax before a big game, a quiet and peaceful place away from the goldfish bowl that was Glasgow.

Well I was lucky enough to stay a 15 minute walk from the hotel, living most of my younger days in West Kilbride, it almost felt like at least one weekend a month me and my pals would be down there getting autographs from guys like Tommy Burns, Packie Bonner, Peter Grant etc, all the guys that we would only have seen in sticker albums or on television.

Like most wee boys, me and my big brother were quickly brought up in the Celtic way from my dad and uncles. I can still remember my dad coming home from games, you could here him before you could see him, with him walking up you street singing Celtic songs way before he’d get to the front door, a stagger into the living room and onto his favourite chair, I was quickly told to “get the good songs on son” (this was The Wolftones) and he would sit me on his knee and we’d sing away until my mum would come down stairs and tell us to get to bed pronto.

Most of my family are Celtic fans, and most still stay in West Kilbride so when word spread that Celtic were in town we would all meet up and head to the Hydro. If you had got there at a decent time then you could sometimes watch the players train out on the back green of the hotel, guys who I’d only seen on tv or at Celtic Park at the games where suddenly a few feet way from me, I couldn’t believe it.

Often as the training went on, the odd shout over to us young ones would come, “who’s away for the baw then boys”? meaning that the ball had gone over the small wall at the back and onto the beach below, cue a royal rumble situation taking place as 20 plus of us scrambling to be the lucky one to get it and retrieve the ball for a few quid you would get as a reward.

Training over, the players and staff would always walk over to the waiting crowd, posing for pictures and signing books, t-shirts and anything else that the supporters had brought down.

Peter Grant and Tommy Burns were in particular always great with us, real Celtic men who always had time for fans and the more we would go down to see them the more they would recognise other faces, “Awrite Kev wee man, how you doing the day?” Peter would say, “how’s your mum and dad”? Like I said, real Celtic men who had all the time of day for you.

I no longer live near the hotel, having moved up to Glasgow many years ago. And unfortunately the players no longer go to Seamill before games so it’s unfortunate that loads of Celtic fans living down that way don’t get the access me and my pals did all those years ago.

You can’t buy the memories some of us have, playing kick about with your heroes, my pal also beat Charlie Nicholas at pool once down there, resulting in him storming out the room in a huff!

West Kilbride/Seamill might not mean a lot for most but for us guys who lived there, it was our piece of Paradise.

Kevin O’Rourke

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About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor David Faulds has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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