Ayr Academy F.C.
Ayr Academy Football Club was a football team from Ayr, Scotland, founded in 1869 and dissolved in 1876. They played at the Low Green and used the Ayr Arms on High Street for facilities. The club’s colours were a red cap, jersey and stockings, white knickerbockers, and a blue Maltese cross on the left breast. They were one of the ancestral clubs of the current Ayr United.
The 1869 foundation date would have made them Ayr’s earliest football club, but there are no recorded matches until the 1873–74 season. The academy played both association football and rugby; in October 1873 they lost to Kilmarnock in a game played under rugby rules. By 1874 they had 73 members.
The club did not enter the Scottish Cup, but had close ties with Ayr Eglinton, formed in 1875. From Ayr Academy’s cricket side, several players later appeared for Eglinton in the Scottish Cup in 1875–76 and 1876–77. The Academy even beat Eglinton 2–0 in October 1875. The final match was scheduled for 14 October 1876 at Girvan, but it is not clear if it took place.
In a meeting at the Ayr Assembly Rooms that weekend, it was unanimously agreed to merge Ayr Academy with Ayr Eglinton to form a new club, Ayr Academicals.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:53 (CET).