Located in East Clare over looking Lough Derg, the club was first established in the late 1890's; it recorded its first senior victory in 1907 beating local rivals O' Callaghan Mills. During the early 1900's Scarriff proved themselves to be a major force on the senior club scene winning two senior county titles.

There is a passion for Hurling in Scarriff and a determination to succeed. They have not recognised their true potential on the field in recent times but this has not deterred them off the field. The clubs grounds are a short distance from the town itself and a place of refuge for many of the young and growing population to assemble and work on their Hurling and Camogie skills.

The club recently invested in the clubs facilities by adding a 70m x 35m synthetic artificial training pitch, the Club had always boasted to have one the finest pitches in the County, however there was a large portion of the Club grounds that was underutilised and contributed little to the overall facility.

Local engineer and Club man John Jones headed up a small subcommittee to make unprecedented change, with the financial support of a Capital Sports Grant and funding from Munster Council, the committee combined monies raised through local fundraising to develop a first class Synthetic Training Pitch.

We caught up with John and he had this to say, "Thornton Sports were the successful Specialist Sports Contractor to win the contract and along with myself planned and designed this wonderful facility. Looking back it is really hard to imagine how we ever coped with out the All Weather pitch, it is used every night of the week and when not in use by club teams it is available to other groups for hire. We have Hurling and football teams travelling from all over the county to use it, also local Rugby and Soccer teams use it for training.

"Scarriff GAA "Astro" Pitch has become one of the focal points of the town and a fantastic addition to the Club. Because we have the Synthetic pitch, we can be confident that our main pitch can be maintained to highest possible standard and fit for competitive use.

"Scarriff Committee went through a competitive tendering process, but it became very clear from an early stage that the people we wanted to build this pitch would be Thornton Sports, we had spoken to several past clients and visited many of their previous developments all of which we found to be in excellent condition and extremely well built. Their level of expertise and experience in the field of Synthetic grass is the most impressive in Ireland.
"Due to the location of our grounds it was absolutely necessary for us to consider a high ball net system we were very fortunate to have the expertise and accessibility to Padraic Giblin of Sports World Netting on hand who thoroughly complemented Thornton Sports work by securing the perimeter with a high net system for ball retention. Another crucial component was the building of a retaining wall; this has since doubled as a ball wall and is now considered an integral part of many of the hurling training sessions.

"We are absolutely delighted with the current training facilities at Scarriff GAA, and would welcome any Club who would like to come and visit our grounds to do so. It is almost impossible to express just how positive an impact the Synthetic Pitch has made to our club and its members."

Click here to visit the website THORNTON SPORTS Tweet

Most Read Stories