by I think most, if not all archers in the UK will be familiar with Merlin Archery and for lots of people it will be their go to place for new equipment. Until yesterday though, there was no branch in Scotland with our nearest branch being a little under 3 hours away by car.
Not only do Merlin have the biggest selection of stock that we have found in the UK, they are also great at giving advice and give lots of support to smaller clubs like ours. While it’s great being able to order online and have things sent out with very quick delivery times, there’s nothing quite like seeing things in person, and even trying them out!
Leigh has been very excited about the new branch opening since it’s only around an hour away from us so after our successful session with LEAP Sports in the morning we headed for the motorway.
The new store was fairly easy to find, although the sat nav did try and tell us it was a building that didn’t appear to be occupied as we approached so if your sat nav does the same, its the next group of buildings on the right.
There’s parking right outside and the store was completely accessible to me in my wheelchair, although wheelchair users will need someone to open both doors as just one door open was too narrow and they are quite heavy with the second one requiring a latch at the top of to be opened. Given how friendly everyone was, if you are travelling alone I’m confident that a staff member would happily open this for you. There is also an accessible toilet however I didn’t use it and Leigh was too distracted by all the things he could buy to remember if there were grab rails etc, he did say size wise I would definitely have gotten into it when in my chair though.
There is a huge range of stock inside and they will happily set bows up for you and let you try them out in their range area. Leigh managed to buy himself just one bow, but I recon he will be back fairly soon for a second one he had his eye on!
We were able to pick up some of the smaller items the club needs currently and browse through options for the club, pricing up items for our grant application. I chatted to several staff members who were all very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in hearing about Southside Archery and the work we do to ensure that cost is not a barrier for people who want to take up archery.
We also met a very cute, well behaved puppy who had nothing to do with the store or archery but was very friendly and super fluffy so deserves a mention!
We now have enough equipment to run a beginners course in March which you can book online and I will be completing our grant application today for the larger grant which will hopefully allow us to make sure we have enough equipment to continue running beginners courses after that.
I took some photos from our outing but I absolutely did not capture everything they had in stock so I’m afraid you will need to visit yourselves to fully appreciate how well stocked the store is and how friendly the people are.
If you are buying for a club or group remember to check out their club and corporate sales page and get in touch with them for advice and pricing. I’ve contacted them over the years when I have wanted advice on exactly what to order and they have always been very helpful and understanding of our need as a community club to balance quality with cost. You can find out about this here: https://www.merlinarchery.co.uk/club-and-corporate-sales
