Can you run a successful course on a protected site?

Machrihanish Dunes was the first links to be built on a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Head Greenkeeper Simon Freeman explains its impact.

 

Countless hours of hard labour went into preparing the documentation required to even get the proposed development at Machrihanish Dunes to the planning stage, long before the hard work of manually manipulating the machair grazing land into suitable golfing territory could actually begin.

Once ‘construction’ did get under way, only seven acres of the massive site were actually sculpted, with the rest simply utilising the existing ground contours.

A decade later and Machrihanish Dunes has matured into a course that looks as if it has been here for a century. The greens and their surrounds blend seamlessly into the ancient fairway contours and the course has a rugged appearance that complements its natural surroundings.

Maintaining a golf course laid out over a piece of land that has been protected comes with responsibilities. We are the environmental stewards of the site and we work with Scottish Natural Heritage to fulfil the requirements of an agreed management plan.

In simple terms, this plan has been formulated to ensure that we have as minimal an impact as possible on the botanical composition of the site.

We have to assume the golf course will not be around forever and our management ethos revolves around our desire to return the land to whoever follows us in the same condition as it was in when we received it.

This requires knowledge of the multitude of species growing on the site and also an understanding of the activities that took place on the site prior to our ownership. Where once cattle grazed an area during the winter months, now a rough mower cuts and collects the foliage.

Where once animals were denied access to protect rare orchids during their flowering season, now we are prohibited from cutting areas of semi-rough.

Where once sheep and rabbits nibbled plants down to a sensible height, now our fairway mowers cut to a sensible height.

By replicating the impact of grazing through responsible course management practices, we are proud to report the same species that thrive on the site when it was designated as a SSSI are still in evidence today.

Representatives from SNH recently stated the wetland areas had never looked better and not only had the unintrusive management of the golf course ensure great numbers of all the existing species of rare orchids were in evidence, but they had been joined by another species that had never previously been noted.

None of this should come as any great surprise. The reason the developers worked so hard to gain approval for their scheme to operate a golf course on this sacred site was because the ground was already perfect for golf, not because they wanted to change it.

People have golfed on rugged machair land for centuries because it provides an ideal playing field, so it should really come as no surprise that links management and SSSI management should be entirely compatible.