GolfClubAtlas.com > Golf Course Architecture
Keiser's Coul Links Project (Embo/Dornoch)
Thomas Dai:
To expand on a comment by Ryan on another thread and David above, is there an opportunity to significantly upgrade the Struie and the land around it and leave the Embo site as it is?
Atb
Jon Wiggett:
Thomas,
but what would be the difference between developing the dunes south of Dornoch? Yes, it would be possible and there is some great land there for this but it is no more or less special than the Embo site.
The one point where I do agree with Kris is that impact on a SSSI should be kept to an absolute minimum, indeed avoised if at all possible which with the Embo site is the case and the impact on SSI should have mitigation built into any project. Where I do not agree with Kris is his apparent opposition to any development in the Dornoch area. In the end it will be for the people living in that area to decide upon this project as it is them that it effects on a day to day basis.
Where the Trump's Balmiedie project process went wrong was that the locals voted against it only to have outsiders (in this case the Scottish government) step in and over rule them.
Jon
Ally Mcintosh:
In the case of Balmedie, the majority of locals were actually for the project but true, Aberdeen Council cast it down by the deciding vote....
It's a difficult one when you feel emotionally connected to a course or area - it heightens your sense of injustice against any decision made that you don't agree with. For Balmedie, I was excited by the prospect of the course (though vehemently opposed to the level of infrastructure planned with it). Only when I found out the second course was planned to encroach on the more public dunes where I played as a kid did I start to get upset about those plans.... At Portmarnock, my stomach turns every time they make the smallest of tweaks that disturbs the natural ground and that I disagree with...
There are SAC's and natural areas of beauty that I would hate to see turned in to a golf course... And then there are others where the prospect would excite me. Almost always, those preferences are not based on the small environmental differentials (for I don't know them) but on some connection to the memories I have with that particular piece of land.... So for me, it's pretty subjective.
As for Embo, contrary to what Peter said before, a municipal pitch and putt wouldn't be a bad idea. If a golf course eventually gets built there, then I hope all semblance or smell of "international development" is a million miles away. Like Kris States, I would like to see a Mach Dunes level of disturbance, mowing out fairways rather than stripping and starting again (even in the minimalist vein). Only then will the golf course truly feel "of the land".
Thomas Dai:
Fair points Jon.
If the width of the sand-dunes-land is growing it raises an interesting question about ownership. Not sure about Scotland, but in England and Wales I believe the area below the high-tide mark is owned by the Crown while the area above the high-tide mark is owned by whoever owns the adjacent land. So if a course owns the adjacent land and the beach area expands over time.........more golf space? And vice-versa unfortunately.
Interesting comment from Ally for when I drove past Embo a year or so ago I pondered, as I usually do when I see a potentially good looking area for golf, a very minimalist approach, ie a couple of men with hand rakes, maybe a scythe and hatchet, and mowing out fairways and with one day a wooden hut for a clubhouse.
Atb
Niall C:
--- Quote from: Kris Shreiner on April 29, 2016, 01:31:13 AM ---Kalen,
What startling revelations are in that information? It is a reclusive, mixed cover, edge hunter.
It's historical range has been compressed greatly to where it now struggles for it's very existence.
I assume that bold text was meant to convey significance.
What..that its avoids heavily urbanized areas...what did you expect to it be stalking the streets of Inverness?
C'mon, where the context?
--- End quote ---
Kris
I suspect the bit Kalen intended to highlight was the bit about the wildcat avoiding exposed coasts. Do you see Embo being a typical wildcat habitat if left undeveloped ?
Niall
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