These are the GAA’s 10 BEST county grounds, theatres of goals that creak with historical past. Does your county’s dwelling venue make it onto our listing?

COMFORT doesn’t matter. Nobody is going to a championship venue for a comfortable time. Maybe they’re not even going there for a good time.

They go because it’s what they’ve always done, and generations before them, too.

A championship day out is about a tangled jumble of emotions and memories and desperate yearning.

And given that messy mix, the theatres that host these dreams are just as mixum-gatherum in their appeal.

Championship grounds don’t tend to boast comfortable seats, or pristine toilets, or an extensive collection for the gourmands among us.

They creak with history and show the signs of dependence on volunteers for their care. Here are ten of the best – and Croke Park is excluded, on the grounds that it is the national stadium, despite its recent incarnation as Dublin’s unofficial home.

But before teams and fans dream of Dublin 3, there are some marvellous local attractions to first negotiate.

10 The Athletic Grounds, Armagh

There are overdue conversations to be had about GAA infrastructure, and director general Tom Ryan has nudged the association in that direction in recent years.

He’s talked about the association being part of municipal facilities rather than developing expensive grounds for its own exclusive use which then don’t get used enough.

The Athletic Grounds should stand as best practice for any venues that are being built from the ground up.

It was completely overhauled after years of intermittent use, and reopened in 2011. It has a capacity of 18,500, about a third of which is accommodated in a covered stand.

Other than that, there is an open stand as well as terracing behind both goals, as well as all the necessary facilities otherwise required.

There are no bells, no whistles, but it’s bright and fulfils its function superbly.

And that remains the exception rather than the rule, which is inevitable given how old many venues are, their locations in towns, and the restrictions involved in trying to extend and improve in those circumstances.

This, though, is a terrific example of what can be achieved, a realisable dream that meets all the required needs.

And the place fairly rattles on the day, or night, of a big match, and one of the country’s most vociferous supports find their voices.

9 Cusack Park, Ennis

This is one of a few GAA venues which saw a handsome capacity drastically reduced by the Slattery Report in the early 2010s, an audit of GAA grounds that examined capacity in line with health and safety regulations.

It had boasted crowds in excess of 28,000, but that was almost halved after the safety audit.

That capacity was eventually increased to just under 19,000, but Cusack Park, named after Michael Cusack, of course, is another instructive tale about how GAA venues are seen, and were once viewed.

Rumours abounded in the 2000s that developers were keen to purchase the ground. As part of any deal, they would build a new super-stadium on the outskirts of Ennis.

It could accommodate 42,000 spectators and would boast every conceivable amenity.

There was much excitement, and rather less talk of how often the ground would actually be filled; this, remember, was a decade before the Munster round-robin series guaranteed counties two big home matches every summer.

The Celtic Tiger soon croaked and the plans were shelved, as they were in the other cases around the country where property speculators were rumoured to be eyeing up GAA venues.

Cusack Park remained where it stood. Urgent improvements were made to the venue in the years since, but it retains a weather-beaten charm.

Oh, and the usual issues with parking remain. All part of the charm … perhaps.

8 MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey

Up until the middle of this year’s Allianz Football League, Jim McGuinness was hoping that MacCumhaill Park would be ready for today’s Ulster championship date with Down.

That didn’t come to pass, as upgrade works at the ground saw Donegal GAA give in to the inevitable and move the Down match to Letterkenny, with the switch confirmed last month.

It’s easy to see why McGuinness likes Ballybofey: until Tyrone stunned his team in the group stages of last year’s championship, McGuinness had enjoyed a 100 per cent winning record in MacCumhaill Park.

This is another venue that to the outsider is frankly unremarkable, but which history and culture invest with an importance that feels like it can make a difference to the home team.

It was opened in 1956 and for more than 30 years stood largely unchanged. Improvement works took place in 1988, but the current overhaul is the most significant in decades.

As well as a new playing surface, floodlights and new toilets are also being installed. That these features are highlighted by those in charge of the project illustrates how basic GAA facilities are – and it’s a reminder, once again, that people don’t attend these venues for luxury, or even comfort. They are compelled to go by deeper, more admirable impulses.

7 Hyde Park, Roscommon

On the subject of unforgettable backdrops, a graveyard frames the goal behind the eastern end of Dr Hyde Park.

It is one of the more sobering sights in Gaelic games, but when Roscommon are on a roll, like during their recent invigorating league run, the noise in the ground threatens to wake the dead.

Its story neatly summarises many of the features of GAA venues. It is named after a legendary figure in Irish history, in this case Douglas Hyde, first president of Ireland, and who was born in Castlerea.

Second, the ground has been steadily transformed since its opening in 1971 – and not in a seamless way, either.

Readers with longer memories will remember a time when grass banks rose on three sides of the ground, with fans packed in straining for a view.

That changed in the early 1990s with terracing put in, and crowds exceeded 30,000.

Then came the Slattery Report in the early 2010s and the ground’s capacity was reduced by nearly half, to 18,500. Further works have seen that capacity increase to 25,000.

And when it hots up at the Hyde, it gets blistering. That’s even true of matches not involving the Rossies, as Mayo’s fateful draw with Dublin in 2024 and agonising loss to Donegal last year showed.

6 Pearse Stadium, Salthill

Here is a fine example of a ground that visiting teams fear and detest – and that might have left the odd Galway player frazzled in its time, too.

Pearse Stadium is always windy. Go in late January for a league game and the seagulls are stationary in the sky, battling the gales coming in off the Atlantic.

Arrive in May for a festering Connacht football final between Galway and Mayo, or a Leinster championship ding-dong against Kilkenny, and the wind will be just as big a factor.

Then there is choking traffic as people try to make their way through a choc-a-bloc Salthill, an ordeal that takes on a particular charm in high summer.

Parking is a nightmare too. There have been infamous episodes when Gardaí, fed up of indiscriminate parking by fans, have launched crackdowns and ticketed hundreds of cars.

The ensuing outrage is easily imagined.

And yet this is now establishing itself as the home of Galway county teams. That wasn’t a straightforward process, especially for football folk who will always hold a candle for the north Galway redoubt of Tuam Stadium.

But since the ground was redeveloped and reopened in 2003, it has become the home venue for county teams in both codes. With a capacity of around 26,000, the place really hums when full – no matter which way the wind is blowing.

5 The Gaelic Grounds, Limerick

It will be 100 years in October since a small farm was purchased in Limerick. The site is now to the west of the city, part of a bustling suburb. A century ago it was the countryside, and within two years of GAA officials buying the 12-acre farm, the Gaelic Grounds was open.

It soon became a substantial venue, its arrival coinciding with a brilliant generation of Limerick hurlers, led by the idolised Mick Mackey.

Huge crowds were a regular feature, and a measure of the ground’s stature came at the end of the 1950s.

With Croke Park being revamped and its size increased, the original Hogan Stand was down for removal. Instead, it was disassembled and transported to the Gaelic Grounds, faithfully reassembled in 1958 and remaining a part of the stadium until 1988 – when it was replaced by a new stand named after Mackey.

In 1961, the old Hogan Stand, like every other part of the Gaelic Grounds, was stretched to breaking point when more than 70,000 crammed in for a Munster final between Cork and Tipperary; it’s estimated that at least 10,000 of those got in without paying.

Locals boast it remains the record for a sporting attendance in Ireland outside Croke Park.

The capacity today is a more manageable 44,000, and the venue has been invigorated by a decade of Limerick dominance under John Kiely.

4 Nowlan Park Kilkenny

Eighty-seven years after it opened, Nowlan Park made its debut on Sky Sports in 2014.

It was the venue for the first match shown on the satellite broadcaster under a deal that caused enormous ructions and no little hysteria about the future of Gaelic games.

The game was a Leinster championship meeting between Kilkenny and Offaly, and while the great age of Brian Cody’s ruthless Cats was by then near an end, the county remained synonymous with brilliance.

And the glories of the Cody years were shaped at this classy ground, a sound mix of the old and the modern that simply works.

The atmosphere can feel claustrophobic for visiting teams, but the place still holds close to 30,000 when full.

But Nowlan Park became as famous during Kilkenny’s years of plenty for the training sessions Cody held there. The manager never bothered much with a whistle as he oversaw training games that became renowned for their championship intensity.

And one of its most famous evenings came not at a competitive match but at one of those training nights.

It was an open training session before the 2010 All-Ireland final against Tipperary, and Henry Shefflin, trying to defy medical science, appeared weeks after rupturing his cruciate ligament.

Word spread and thousands flooded to Nowlan Park for the miracle that never happened: Shefflin limped off injured in the early stages of a final that Kilkenny would lose.

3 Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney

It’s long been a truism to describe Fitzgerald Stadium as the most beautiful setting for a sports ground in the country.

It doesn’t mean it’s wrong, though.

It ranks high on aesthetics thanks to the looming vista provided by the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks behind one goal. Many’s the opposing fan, their team enfeebled by a Kerry side with the scent of summer driving it into a frenzy, who has looked to the view for some meagre consolation.

The setting also tells a fascinating story about the ground.

Behind it sits St Finan’s Hospital, for years one of the best-known psychiatric hospitals in the country. And the resident medical superintendent there was Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan, eminent psychiatrist and godfather of Kerry football.

He was one of the driving forces behind the building of Fitzgerald Stadium, named for Dick Fitzgerald, a five-time All-Ireland winner and a mainstay of the Dr Crokes Club.

Controversially, O’Sullivan deployed patients from St Finan’s in the building of the ground. This attracted criticism at the time, but Fitzgerald was an early advocate of occupational therapy, later writing a textbook on it, and he was adamant that the work was beneficial for some of his patients.

Less contentious is his record, jointly held with Mick O’Dwyer, of leading the county to eight All-Irelands across almost 40 years.

2 Semple Stadium, Thurles

It’s no coincidence that the legend of Semple, like the lore of Clones, is sourced not merely in the venue but in the impact that a game there has on the wider area.

You know it’s a championship day in Thurles when the traffic starts to crawl shortly after you leave the motorway.

Serious men with urgent faces will be frantically signalling to parking opportunities in freshly mown meadows. Some will take them up on the offer, preferring the certainty of a spot miles away from the ground rather than risk going into town and finding spaces tighter to come by.

By the time you edge past the Anner Hotel on the edge of the town, the colours will be on show. Then you roll through Cathedral Street, over the bridge and into the maelstrom of Liberty Square.

Hayes’ Hotel, the GAA’s stable in Bethlehem, is off to your right. But all around, hurling fans mingle and spread, all getting pulled eventually, inexorably, to the far side of the town.

They make their way past the ice-cream vans and up over the railway bridge, the anticipation growing as a place that spawned hundreds of legends and a thousand dreams is finally within reach.

1 St Tiernach’s Park, Clones

This is a GAA Sunday made flesh, a place that in the mind’s eye must always hum with chip vans and gangs of giddy lads in the colours of their county, racked between hungover and nervous.

It’s a venue which has such a powerful hold that it extends far beyond the ground and seizes the entire town.

The great supporter neurosis around traffic and parking is captured better here than anywhere else, not least down to the fearsomely efficient stewarding operation that makes itself felt the closer you get to the ground.

Some of those volunteers would rather you drove over them than grant you access somewhere without a permit.

Then there are the crowds moving as one for the steep climb up Church Hill, before the bowl-shaped venue appears.

It is no modern super-stadium; its capacity was reduced from 36,000 to 29,000 at the end of the last decade. It’s less than two years since a government grant was awarded to help with the installation of floodlights.

But there is no illumination required in high summer as the giants of Ulster gather in this market town to settle matters.

It’s been home to the Ulster final for the past two decades, and any move away from that arrangement would be fiercely resisted. Careworn? Perhaps, but St Tiernach’s Park is a monument to our native passions.