The measure of success: The legacy of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games

It’s a dreich summer night at the end of July in Marchmont, one of Edinburgh’s leafiest suburbs. Walking up a street not far from the Meadows, large Victorian houses and a scattering of modern homes – one with a driveway which has its own roundabout – line both sides of the road. 

Nestled amongst them is Whitehouse and Grange Bowls Club. Down a narrow path, you are immediately met with the pristine bowling green on the right, which is surrounded by well-kept flowerbeds and a mixture of older and newer trees. The clubhouse, which overlooks the green, has stood in its current form since the early 1910s. It was designed by renowned Edinburgh architect Sir George Washington Browne, whose work also included the Caledonian Hotel and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. There is a small bar on the ground floor and a clubroom upstairs, furnished with dark wood panelling.  

Walking on towards the green, there are men in white uniforms milling around, as more continue to pile out of the locker rooms with their equipment ahead of tonight’s league match. The home team is taking on Portobello in its final game of the season. A win is essential if it’s to have any hope of finishing first in the fifth division of the Edinburgh Bowling Association this year.  

There’s a relaxed atmosphere among the Whitehouse and Grange team ahead of the game – the players chat amongst themselves, and at least one is smoking a cigarette.  

The club’s honorary president, Michael Marshall, gives a tour of the club as proceedings begin. He shows off the honours board, pointing to Dr John Orr, who represented Scotland at the 1930 British Empire Games (the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games) in Hamilton, Canada, winning a bronze medal in the fours, and Morgan Moffat, who joined Whitehouse and Grange in 1970 and became a Scottish international before later emigrating to New Zealand. He won a bronze medal for Scotland at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch before going on to represent New Zealand at the 1986 games in Edinburgh, with his nation using his old club as a base for the duration, Marshall tells 
Holyrood.  

With only 20 minutes gone, the players are moving quickly from the green as puddles start to form. The game is rained off and rescheduled for the following week. The conversation in the bar moves quickly to the Commonwealth Games and how Scottish athletes may fare after no medals in the men’s singles and a gold in the para bowls mixed singles.  

However, there is confidence among the members of Whitehouse and Grange that Scotland will win the most coveted medal: the men’s pairs. One member says that confidence stems from Alex ‘Tattie’ Marshall, who he describes as “the Messi of bowls”. Marshall and fellow Scottish bowls legend Paul Foster share 13 Commonwealth Games medals between them.

Another also points out that among Scotland’s bowls squad at Glasgow 2026 is 23-year-old Beth Riva, Marshall’s niece, who made her Commonwealth Games debut after winning world championship mixed pairs gold in 2025. Alongside Riva is 22-year-old Sophie McGrouther, the youngest member of the squad, with their selection suggesting the sport’s future may not be quite as grey-haired as some stereotypes suggest. 

Despite the clear interest from the bowlers, the sport attracts a significantly lower profile than athletics, swimming or cycling. Yet it has long been part of the games, debuting in 1930, and has only been omitted once since then. It remains one of Scotland’s most successful Commonwealth sports, while also topping the all-time para bowls medal table.  

At professional level, the sport has a strong emphasis on inclusivity. Pauline Wilson, Commonwealth champion in para bowls from Birmingham 2022, spoke earlier this month about the importance of bowls and para bowls athletes competing together at the games: “In the Commonwealth Games, we’re there at the same time, we’re mingling with each other, we’re training with each other. It’s good for the sport, and it just shows everybody how inclusive bowls is – it doesn’t matter what your ability is.”   

It is a good example of a sport and para sport that is accessible to a range of ages, with a low cost and barrier to entry. It is an ideal model of the kind of sport the Scottish Government wants to promote in the wake of the games due to its inclusivity, affordability, and community focus. 

One of the members at the Whitehouse and Grange, David, who joined when he retired at 59, explains how he got into the sport and why he enjoys it so much. “I did a bit of walking and played golf before,” he says. “Here you can play as part of a team for the club, play in the internal competitions, or just have friendly games within the club. For example, Monday night is gents’ hat night, where we draw a number out of the hat to decide where you’re playing, and recently we’ve had about 25 to 30 people playing. It’s good fun and very friendly.

The ladies have a similar thing on a Wednesday afternoon.   
“There are some quite young players here at this club, which is a really encouraging thing to see. I know it sounds funny, but we’ve got a few under 40s now, perhaps even a few under 30s, which is good.” 

The Scottish Government hopes to build on the success of Scottish athletes at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, which First Minister John Swinney described as “truly historic and inspiring”. It was a strong showing from Scotland, finishing fifth in the overall medal table, and although it won 14 fewer medals than in 2014, it’s worth noting it was a reduced games with only 10 sports compared to 18 in 2014. 

As part of the government’s Summer of Sport initiative, it invested £20m into a nationwide programme of free and low-cost sporting activities for children and young people, “encouraging a new generation to enjoy taking part in physical activity”. Sports minister Maree Todd said around the time of the announcement that the funding “can be truly transformational and will offer sporting opportunities across the length and breadth of Scotland”.  

She added: “This is about ensuring that every child who attends a session still has the option to stay active in a year’s time and throughout their life. 

“If we get it right, the impact it will be felt long after this summer and will help to improve health and wellbeing, tackle inequality, strengthen communities and make sport accessible to all.” 

While the legacy of Glasgow 2014 included significant infrastructure investment, particularly in the east end of the city through the athletes’ village, Tollcross International Swimming Centre and the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, former first minister Jack McConnell, who was named a UK Government adviser on “soft power and major events” in May, told Holyrood last month that “we have not used the legacy of 2014 as successfully as we should have done”. He said: “We could and should have invested much more money in sports facilities and in local sports clubs, and I hope that the new Scottish Government will follow that through in these games and rectify that mistake that was made in 2014.” 

These concerns were echoed in a major sportscotland review of the country’s sports estate. It concluded that rising operating costs, ageing facilities and funding pressures are creating serious concerns about the long-term sustainability of sites across the country.  

It noted that much of Scotland’s sports infrastructure is publicly owned and heavily relied upon by clubs and communities, but that owners are struggling to maintain and develop facilities.

A particularly stark example is swimming pool infrastructure. Research published by Scottish Swimming and sportscotland in 2023 warned that 56 per cent of Scotland’s 396 public swimming pools are more than 30 years old, and that almost 150 were at risk of closure due to age. It was estimated that maintaining the existing provision of pools would require approximately five new pools a year at an estimated cost of £40.5m annually. 

Gayle McPherson, professor of events and cultural policy at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and director of its Centre for Culture, Sport and Events, was part of the bid team for Glasgow 2014, writing the cultural and legacy element, and is currently on the board of Commonwealth Games Scotland as the director of legacy and community engagement. She points to a national survey of over 1,100 by UWS, published 10 years on from the 2014 Glasgow games, which shows almost 70 per cent of people felt the games had enhanced access to sporting facilities and activities and a similar number felt there was an increased emphasis on public health and physical activity. 

“Part of it was about getting people access to physical activity more than just sport. We always focus on sport, but if you look at the legacy of that, people are more physically active now, even if they are not necessarily playing more sports,” McPherson says.  

She adds that there has been a push to make PE in schools more accessible to children with disabilities since 2014. “One of the things that Scottish Disability Sport did in 2014 was to create a PE teachers programme. Because what used to happen was children with disabilities were, at worst, asked to sit out and do something else, like read a book, or at best be included in a tokenistic way. It depended on the school and the access.  
“Initially, 1,000 teachers were trained in inclusive practice and education. This has been maintained, and it has been rolled out to local authorities and to sports clubs.” 

While discussions around legacy often centre on policy, investment and participation figures, success is ultimately determined in places like Whitehouse and Grange. 

If Glasgow 2026 is to leave a lasting sporting legacy, it will depend not on what happens inside arenas and stadiums but on whether more people choose to walk through the gates of local clubs after the games have finished. 

Founded more than 150 years ago, Whitehouse and Grange has produced Commonwealth Games competitors, survived two world wars and adapted to changing patterns of leisure and participation. On the night Holyrood visits, the rain may have ended play after just 20 minutes, but members continue to gather in the clubhouse to discuss football, work and Scotland’s medal prospects. 

Bowls may not attract the television audiences of athletics or swimming, but it remains one of Scotland’s largest participation sports. There are 799 clubs affiliated to Bowls Scotland and more than 48,000 members across the country.
David, who is manning the Whitehouse and Grange bar in the absence of the club’s usual bar convener, laughs when asked how he got involved. He says he joined because his wife “didn’t want me under her feet” after retirement. Now, he jokes, he spends more time at the club “than she would like”. 

Outside, the rain that brought an early end to play has eased. The league match will have to wait for another night. But the clubhouse remains busy, filled with conversation, laughter and plans for future games. If Glasgow 2026 is to create the healthier, more active Scotland ministers hope for, its legacy may ultimately be measured not in medal tables or stadiums but in how many more people find their way through the gates of places like Whitehouse and Grange.