IT’S the end of an era as Dunfermline Carnegie Hockey Club bid farewell to their pitch at Woodmill High School.

The club are set to move to the Dunfermline Learning Campus from next Monday, with this weekend to be the last based at their old pitch.

With that, Dunfermline Carnegie Hockey Club close the door on a 19-year spell of their history, while paving the way for a new chapter.

The Press spoke with Gordon Johnston, one of the club’s directors, on the move away from their current home and into their new one.

“It’s a pity,” he said. “We’ve been used to being there for along but I guess this fits into the nomadic history of the club.

“The most important thing is having a pitch which is suitable for hockey and suits hockey, this allows for the ball to be moved around more swiftly.”

The nomadic history that Gordon alluded to was the long period of time in which Dunfermline Carnegie Hockey Club was not based in Dunfermline at all.

Over the years, the club has been established in Stirling, Dalgety Bay, Rosyth and Glenrothes before eventually settling in at Woodmill High School.

The youth setup of the club moved to Woodmill in August 2005, with the senior teams moving in in August 2013 following the laying of a new specially-built pitch.

“This new pitch made a big difference,” Gordon went on. “We were all based in the one place and the pitch had good quality.

“The club also gradually increased in usage and size, even in spite of the Woodmill High School fire in 2019 and Covid in 2020.”

The club faced challenges over the last few years, owing to the outbreak of a blaze at the school’s premises and then the lockdown in 2020.

Despite this, Gordon relished that it had not done much to hinder attendance, with the club going through one of its most popular periods.

Gordon added: “One of the claims to fame from our time at Woodmill High School was when the men’s senior team was promoted to the Scottish Premiership for the first time in its history.

“We hosted Inverleith who are one of the better Edinburgh-based teams and we defeated them 3-2.”

Dunfermline Carnegie Hockey Club is one of the various sports teams who will be permanently moving to the new Dunfermline Learning Campus next week.

The DLC opens its doors to sports clubs on Monday, October 9, aiming to be a communal hub for groups in the area, boasting impressive facilities and pitches.