During the mid-70s, skateboarding exploded onto the scene. In those early days, it was all about bombing hills and skating down the high street. Joe public was horrified by this new ‘dangerous’ sport and authorities were under pressure to do something about it. In response, new skateparks started popping up in major cities throughout England, and it wasn’t long until Scotland wanted a piece of the action. Those early days saw a lot of trial and error, and with most outdoor parks being built from concrete, any design errors or mistakes were literally cast in stone.

In 1977 Glasgow District Council announced that they were going to construct a Skatepark in the Westend park of Kelvingrove. Not much is known about its designer other than his name, Mr Richard S Wrigley, who is also credited with designing the legendary London park ‘Rolling Thunder’. The council pledged £50,000 for the build and a further £50,000 for the trees, landscaping, fence and outbuildings. Utilising the natural slope of the hill, the skatepark attempted to replicate most of the features that were expected for that era. Halfpipe (with no flat bottom) Cloverbowl, head to head Slalom Run and a Snake Run. The freestyle area used an already existing 1950s era concrete dance floor roller rink which was probably one of the main reasons that this area of the park was chosen.