In 1695, James Balfour, the Laird of Pilrig, obtained a charter from King William III that gave him the exclusive right to manufacture gunpowder in Scotland.

This required the construction of a factory, known as a powder-mill, which was built to the north of the city of Edinburgh on the shore of the Water of Leith, a small tributary of the Firth of Forth.

[1] An Edinburgh firm of builders, W. & D. McGregor, had purchased a plot of land that had previously formed part of Thomas Mylne's Powderhall estate, and the syndicate took out a five-year lease on this piece of land where they laid out their running grounds, about one mile to the west of Pilrig House and right on the Water of Leith.

Much of the materials for this they purchased from the recently defunct Newington grounds at Powburn Toll for the sum of one hundred pounds.

[1] The first meet, called the New Year Pedestrian Gala, was held over three days in January 1870 with three events, a 1-mile handicap won off the scratch mark by John Ridley of Gateshead in the very good time of 4:25.

By draining the adjoining Boyton's Pond he added to the existing football ground an 880 feet circular running path (6 laps to the mile) and a sprint track of 125 yards.

[5][6][7][8] In October 1888 the Lord Provost's Committee submitted a report to Edinburgh Town Council recommending that "the ground at Powderhall belonging to the city be taken over from the present tenant and converted into a Public Park from Whitsunday next."

On Wednesday 29 August 1889 Lapsley was granted a warrant at the Dean of Guild Court in Edinburgh authorising him to proceed with the layout of a new running ground at Beaverhall Road, practically adjoining the land recently vacated, and to construct on them two grandstands and changing rooms.

[1] William Lapsley died on 28 February 1903 as a result of an accident in a horse drawn cab on his way to a rugby union international between Scotland and Ireland.

The driver of the cab lost control of it on a steep hill and the horse bolted and crashed into the basement of a nearby house.

[1] After winning the 100 yards at the Edinburgh University sports in May 1921, the Olympian Eric Liddell, portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire, started training at Powderhall under the care of Tommy McKerchar, a printer by trade who coached professional pedestrians on the side.

[9][10] Over the next few years professional pedestrianism gradually waned in importance, from regular meets at dozens of grounds around the country there were now apart from Powderhall just those at Blackpool, Morpeth, Cardiff, Pontypridd and Newcastle keeping the sport alive.

But decline is a relative term as at the 1907 New Year Handicap 24,000 spectators turned out despite rain having fallen for several hours before the meet commenced.

From this time a series of these promotions were held at regular intervals throughout the season, and as professional sprinting declined these other events gradually assumed a greater importance in the sporting calendar.

A special turf track was constructed outside the running path to accommodate the sulkies, and in the first meeting one of the jockeys broke his arm and another was thrown out of his carriage.

In August 1878 they presented a wire walking act and held their first dog races, promoted by the Midlothian Dog-Racing Club.

They followed that with a six-day bicycle race held in Waverley Market and Powderhall put on a Grand Horse and Pony Leaping Competition to try and draw in the crowds.

The kennels were built on the west side of the stadium replacing an old football ground[12] and the first trainers were John Snowball, Tom Storey, Arthur Graham, C Hughes and Tommy Johnston (Sr.).

The track introduced its own major event in 1933 and called it the Edinburgh Cup which saw early winners including Jesmond Cutlet, Wattle Bark and Dante II.

In 1970 the stadium underwent renovation including a new 100 'Silver Hound' seated restaurant with a glass plated front to allow public viewing and bar areas increased to a total of seven.

Powderhall marked its 60th anniversary with a new £400,000 grandstand and in 1987 the track was handed the Scottish Greyhound Derby by the GRA (following problems at Shawfield), the first time the event was run outside of Glasgow.