Take a look inside the academy...
The importance of the role played by the club in the conception and construction of this magnificent facility is immediately evident as you pass through the impressive glass-panelled entrance, with the Hearts crest displayed prominently on the glass alongside crest of Heriot-Watt University.
Once inside, the first port of call for most visitors is the reception desk, which is staffed by University personnel during the academy's opening hours. Hearts visitors are requested to report to reception on arrival and then wait to be collected by the relevant member of the club's staff.
Immediately behind the reception desk is a Seminar Room, which the manager will use when he meets the press before games, as well as for any other important announcements made by the football department. Away from the prying eyes of the press pack, the staff and players will also use this room for their video analysis sessions, which take place after every game.
Continuing through the ground floor, we come first to the First Team Changing Room which, as its name suggests, is for the exclusive use of Hearts top team 
players. This room features a huge changing area to easily accommodate the entire first-team squad and adjacent shower and bathing facilities.
Next to the changing room, we enter the domain of kit manager Gordon Paterson and his assistants Penny and Norrie: the Laundry. First Team and youth players will all report to this area in the morning to pick up their training kit for the day and then drop off the used kit after each sessions. Gordon has three industrial washing machine and two dryers which give him a fighting chance of transforming sweaty rags into pristine kit in time for the next day's sessions.
Just outside the Laundry is the Bootroom, which provides hanging space for three pairs of boots for each player, along with cubby holes for training shoes, flip-flops and whatever other mode of footwear the modern professional footballer requires. Although just starting out on his professional career at the club, Christophe Berra has already left his mark on this part of the academy: as the player with the largest shoe size, the pegs in the Bootroom have been spaced in order to accommodate his boots.
Directly opposite the Laundry is the Treatment Suite, which comprises an office for consultations with club doctor W Dewar Melvin and a larger area where Andy Caldwell and his staff perform physiotherapeutic magic on the injured and infirm. The physio room opens directly onto the Conditioning/Rehabilitation Suite, which accommodates an Isokinetic Dynamometer designed to provide a safe and controlled method for both development and recovery of muscle function.
On the first-floor, the Hearts office accommodation is entered by a long corridor features images of players and strips from past and present. Visitors are received by football secretary Louise Mackenzie, who is charged with the difficult task of ensuring that football department staff know what they are supposed to be doing at any given time and where and when they are supposed to be doing it.
Beyond the waiting-room is the office of the academy director John Murray and that most inner of all inner sanctums; the office shared by the football management and coaching staff.
Those pitches are accommodated in the fenced John Brydson Arena immediately adjacent to the main academy building. The arena features the two UEFA-sized competition pitches, one laid to grass and the other again featuring the FieldTurf surface. The players will perform most of their outdoor training sessions on these surfaces, while the U19 squad play home matches on the grass surface.
