For most of the Scottish padel boom, Dundee sat on the sidelines. Glasgow built up a cluster of venues. Edinburgh accumulated courts across multiple clubs. Aberdeen got a dedicated centre. Dundee, Scotland’s fourth-largest city, had nothing. That changed in early 2026.
Forthill Padel Club in Broughty Ferry opened its doors in January 2026 – Tayside’s first padel venue, and the result of a plan that was announced back in 2022. If you’re based in or around Dundee, here is what you need to know.
Forthill Padel Club: Dundee’s only venue
Forthill Community Sports Club in Broughty Ferry, on the east side of Dundee, is where padel has landed in Tayside. Game4Padel – the UK’s largest padel operator, backed by Sir Andy Murray – announced the venue in May 2022 and completed construction in late 2025. The courts officially opened on 17 January 2026.
The venue has two indoor padel courts with artificial grass, plus an outdoor pickleball court. Courts are covered, which matters considerably in a Scottish winter.
Address: Fintry Place, Broughty Ferry, DD5 3BL
Booking: Via Game4Padel / Matchi. Non-members can book up to 7 days in advance; members get 10 days.
Hours: Monday–Friday 9:30am–9pm; Saturday–Sunday 9am–9pm
The club is part of Forthill’s broader sports complex, which includes cricket, hockey, rugby, tennis, squash, a gym, bar, and function suite – so there’s infrastructure around it, not just two courts dropped into a car park.
Pricing
| Time | Members (per person/hr) | Non-members (per person/hr) |
|---|---|---|
| Weekdays before 5pm | £4 | £6 |
| Weekdays after 5pm | £6 | £8 |
| Weekends (all day) | £6 | £8 |
Peak pricing at £8 per person puts a court at £32 for four – broadly in line with what you’d pay at a mid-range club in Edinburgh or Aberdeen. There’s also a membership option starting at £13/month for a family (minimum two people at the same address), which brings weekday daytime to £4 per person.
How Dundee compares to the rest of Scotland
Two courts is a modest start, but it’s a start. For context:
Glasgow has six venues open now, with more arriving through 2026 – the city has moved from padel curiosity to genuine padel infrastructure. If you want to understand the breadth of what Glasgow has built, the padel in Glasgow guide covers all of them in detail.
Edinburgh has multiple clubs spread across the city, ranging from established tennis clubs that added padel courts to newer dedicated venues. See the padel in Edinburgh guide for the full picture.
Aberdeen opened its bespoke padel centre at Aberdeen Tennis Centre with two covered outdoor courts – ahead of Dundee, and with an organised beginners’ programme. The padel in Aberdeen guide has pricing and coaching details.
Dundee is starting from scratch, but the Forthill model – a community sports club with existing membership and infrastructure – is a reasonable foundation. It avoids the chicken-and-egg problem that standalone padel venues face: the sports club already has members who can be introduced to the sport.
Alternatives within reach
If two courts at one venue isn’t enough, or you want more variety, two options are within reasonable distance:
Gleneagles, Auchterarder is roughly 40 minutes from Dundee city centre and has three indoor padel courts at its Sporting Club, which opened in August 2024. This is a premium venue at a luxury hotel, so pricing is at the higher end – but the courts are reportedly excellent, and it’s one of the few venues in Scotland where padel and a five-star hotel come as a package. Worth it for a day trip if you’re organising something special.
Elie Sports Club, Fife is in the East Neuk of Fife, about 45 minutes from Dundee via the Tay Bridge. It has two regulation courts that opened in 2024 and books through LTA ClubSpark. A coastal setting and a fraction of the footfall of a city-centre club.
Perth has no dedicated padel venue as of writing. St Andrews has courts at the University, making it primarily student-facing.
Getting started at Forthill
Forthill runs coaching through the Game4Padel network, with LTA-accredited instructors. If you’ve never played padel before, a beginner lesson is the fastest way to get functional – the rules and scoring are straightforward, but court awareness and understanding the walls takes a session or two to click. If you want to arrive prepared, the how to start playing padel guide covers the essentials before your first session.
The club’s social padel sessions are worth checking for anyone who wants to play without needing three friends available at the same time. Americano formats (where partners rotate each round) are common at this type of session and a good way to build a local network. More broadly, finding people to play padel with is one of the most common challenges for new players – the guide has practical options if the Forthill social calendar doesn’t work for your schedule.
The bigger picture
Padel in Dundee is new. The city missed the 2022–2024 wave that brought courts to most other Scottish cities, partly because the Forthill project took longer to deliver than planned. The result is that Dundee players were driving to Edinburgh or Aberdeen – or not playing at all – for the better part of three years.
Two courts won’t satisfy a city of 150,000 people if the sport continues to grow at the rate it has been across Scotland. Whether Forthill adds courts, or another operator moves into the city, will depend on how quickly those two courts fill up. For now, if you’re in Tayside, Broughty Ferry is where you need to be.
Book a court: forthillpadel.com
Always verify pricing and availability directly with the venue before travelling.
See how this compares elsewhere with the full directory of UK padel court guides, organised by region.