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Posted (edited)

I came across this information on a golf course that was situated at Ness Castle while looking for some information on an old golf course in Ireland. Below is the layout for what was a 9 hole course that was laid out circa 1890 at Ness Castle by a Mr James Patterson (who apparently was a local Civil Engineer) for Fontaine Walker (1833-1892) who was a wealthy businessman of the time and also the owner of Ness Castle and at one time also the Foyers estate.

The course was located on what is now the site of the new Barratt's Ness Castle housing development on Dores Road. I always wondered about the purpose of the large cleared area at the top of the hill between Ness Castle and the Dores Road from my younger days but never knew that it was at one time a golf course.

If you look at the the recent Google Earth map you can still see three of the copses that are referenced in the 1929 Courier extract and shown on the map below. I wonder if they have found any old golf balls while they have been clearing the site as a few must have gone astray.

Ness Castle Golf Club, Inverness. Course layout.

Ness Castle 4.jpg

Interestingly the web-site references four old Inverness golf course locations but does not mention Craig Dunain golf course.

Does anybody have any other information (or photos even) of the Ness Castle course or any other of the old Inverness courses that have now been lost to development?

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Ness Castle 2.jpg

Looking south towards Dores

Ness Castle 5.jpg

Looking north towards Inverness

Edited by Tichy_Blacks_Back
  • Agree 1
Posted (edited)

Longman Municipal Golf Club - it was located on a section of land that jutted into the firth near to the current Caledonian Thistle stadium (source: Old Inverness in Pictures; 1978)

Longman Golf Course opening - circa 1920.jpg

Edited by Tichy_Blacks_Back
Posted (edited)

The opening of the temporary Culcabock golf club course at the Longman (source: Am Baile) - Am Baile states 1895 but the course was opened in 1893 according to Inverness Golf Club history page

Longman golf course opening (Am Baile).jpg

Edited by Tichy_Blacks_Back
Posted
2 hours ago, Tichy_Blacks_Back said:

The opening of the temporary Culcabock golf club course at the Longman (source: Am Baile) - Am Baile states 1895 but the course was opened in 1893 according to Inverness Golf Club history page

Longman golf course opening (Am Baile).jpg

1895 is correct but I think that may be at Culcabock.  I have the centenary booklet that Inverness Golf Club produced in 1983, and here's what I have found. 

The club had originally started at Culcabock, but they set up the Longman course because they didn't have enough land at Culcabock.

The Longman course was opened on 15th April 1893, and a clubhouse at the Longman was opened on 16th March 1895.

However, "the end of this year [1895] also saw a clubhouse built and formally opened at Culcabock." The booklet contains a much poorer reproduction of the Am Baile picture above, labelled "Opening of first Clubhouse Culcabock 1895".

So it looks as though by the end of 1895 they had two clubhouses, one at the Longman and one at Culcabock. The booklet later refers to "expenditure on the clubhouses at Culcabock and the Longman", so whoever wrote it definitely believed that they had two.

The club later acquired more land at Culcabock, building a new clubhouse there in 1908 to replace the clubhouse which had existed for only 13 years.

Posted

What a happy lot the fees must have been a lot higher back in the old days :lol:

Posted (edited)
20 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Yup - that's the 8th tee, in the south-west corner of the course. The photographer was standing on Old Mill Lane.  That's the clubhouse on Culcabock Road above the seated woman.

Thanks - I thought that was where it might be. Therefore the line of trees on the left are in front of what would now the back gardens of the houses on Eriskay Road and the tee box in the photograph would be roughly where the women's tee is today. Interestingly none of the trees that run along the burn or elsewhere on the course today appear to have been planted yet in the old photograph.

Culcabock Golf Course 2014.jpg

Edited by Tichy_Blacks_Back
Posted
17 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

1895 is correct but I think that may be at Culcabock.  I have the centenary booklet that Inverness Golf Club produced in 1983, and here's what I have found. 

The club had originally started at Culcabock, but they set up the Longman course because they didn't have enough land at Culcabock.

The Longman course was opened on 15th April 1893, and a clubhouse at the Longman was opened on 16th March 1895.

However, "the end of this year [1895] also saw a clubhouse built and formally opened at Culcabock." The booklet contains a much poorer reproduction of the Am Baile picture above, labelled "Opening of first Clubhouse Culcabock 1895".

So it looks as though by the end of 1895 they had two clubhouses, one at the Longman and one at Culcabock. The booklet later refers to "expenditure on the clubhouses at Culcabock and the Longman", so whoever wrote it definitely believed that they had two.

The club later acquired more land at Culcabock, building a new clubhouse there in 1908 to replace the clubhouse which had existed for only 13 years.

Thanks for the clarification - this is the ambaile link: http://www.ambaile.com/detail/en/11292/1/GD11292-fosgladh where they state it is the Longman clubhouse opening. You would have to assume that the centenary booklet would be correct and ambaile may have just got the description wrong. 

 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, jaggybonnet said:

Hi

Your source does list Craig Dunain as Leachkin

Yeh - they have it listed under Highlands & Islands instead of Inverness. Not much information although it states it was opened in the 1970s/80s whereas I thought it was there earlier than that. It was one of four Scottish hospitals that had there own golf courses on site. Unfortunately there are no photographs for the course.

Posted
On 8 May 2016 at 7:00 PM, Tichy_Blacks_Back said:

Yeh - they have it listed under Highlands & Islands instead of Inverness. Not much information although it states it was opened in the 1970s/80s whereas I thought it was there earlier than that. It was one of four Scottish hospitals that had there own golf courses on site. Unfortunately there are no photographs for the course.

I am also surprised to see the 1970s/80s date. In fact I have a recollection of my father taking about playing there with my uncle who worked at CD in the 50s.

Posted
18 minutes ago, Charles Bannerman said:

I am also surprised to see the 1970s/80s date. In fact I have a recollection of my father taking about playing there with my uncle who worked at CD in the 50s.

My father remembers playing there in the late 1950s so it must have been there from at least the 1950s. Craig Dunain Hospital closed in 1999 but not sure when the golf course closed but I can remember it in the early 1980s.  

Posted

Well I lived right beside the green of the 2nd hole in the 60's and it had been open before that. Looked after mainly by the patients - as were most of the grounds - Care in the Community fecked the golf course !!

Posted
3 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

From the ski slope 7th looking back down the 6th and the 3rd.

image.jpg

That's a brilliant photo. Long hot summer, given how dry everything looks.

Posted
On 08/05/2016 at 0:11 PM, Tichy_Blacks_Back said:

... Interestingly none of the trees that run along the burn or elsewhere on the course today appear to have been planted yet in the old photograph.

Those trees have had a chequered past! The IGC centenary booklet doesn't contain many pictures, but it does contain three of approximately the same area, around the 6th, 7th and 8th. (I acknowledge the violation of copyright – IGC please forgive me.)

The first picture below, from 1912, shows the 6th green and the burn. In the distance, on the left, is Old Mill Lane and what is now the 8th tee, featured in the pictures earlier in this thread. In 1912, IGC did not own the land on the other side of the burn, hence the reference to the “original course boundary wall”.

1912.jpg

 

The 1920 picture below is from near the 7th green, above and to the right of the women teeing off in TBB's original picture. The trees are still there.

1920.jpg

 

Chronologically, the next picture is TBB's original picture of the women teeing off. I am not a fashion expert, but guess that it is from the 1930s. In that picture, the trees are gone.

 

Now fast forward to 1983. Young trees are growing along the burn, and presumably these are now the mature trees in TBB's colour picture.

1983.jpg

 

I played at Culcabock mostly during my secondary school years, 1968-74. During that time, the club planted lots of trees around the course – including between the 1st and 18th, on the 3rd, 4th and 5th, and in the angle between the 6th and the 7th. At the time, they were in fenced-off plantations from which you got a free drop, but nowadays you'd just have to play out. Frankly, the course now looks terrifying compared to the one that I used to hack around!

 

 

 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Schooldays 1968-74? Assuming you are not Laurie Chancellor himself, did you play at Culcabock at all with Laurie?

Oh dear, it's like when you used to catch me coming in late. 

My name is Garry Smith and I did play golf quite a bit with Laurie, including in the IRA team.  I last met Laurie, and his wife Tina who was also a classmate, at the IGC Xmas Eve dinner back in December.

I was in the same year as Laurie, Billy Urquhart, Dave Milroy, et al - and also one IHE, who I'm pretty sure won't remember me.

Posted
34 minutes ago, Tichy_Blacks_Back said:

I assume these are modern photos of the same 6th green shown in the 1983 photograph with a hedge at the back of the 7th tee box?

Looks like it, though I have not been down there for 25 or more years.

Originally, the burn meandered along the right-hand side of the 8th almost as far as the green. It crossed the 9th just in front of the tee. You didn't have to cross the burn to reach the 6th green.

In the 70s, they straightened out the burn - and turned it into a raging torrent - and constructed a new 6th green so that you had to pitch across the burn to reach it. The burn then crossed the 9th at the bottom of the slope leading up to that green.

Posted
On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 2:40 PM, snorbens_caleyman said:

Oh dear, it's like when you used to catch me coming in late. 

My name is Garry Smith and I did play golf quite a bit with Laurie, including in the IRA team.  I last met Laurie, and his wife Tina who was also a classmate, at the IGC Xmas Eve dinner back in December.

I was in the same year as Laurie, Billy Urquhart, Dave Milroy, et al - and also one IHE, who I'm pretty sure won't remember me.

Yes I remember you well Garry. Red hair, lived in Culduthel Rd, sister called Judy, dad called John who - like mine - was involved in the Boys' Brigade?

I wouldn't worry about IHE not remembering you.  Part of the period we are talking about includes the 70s when IHE doesn't remember anything!

Posted
11 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Yes I remember you well Garry. Red hair, lived in Culduthel Rd, sister called Judy, dad called John who - like mine - was involved in the Boys' Brigade?

Grey hair now, live in St Albans (Snorbens), sister is still called Judi, and my Dad died about 13 years ago. He had a long association with the 5th BB - in fact he decided it was time to resign as an officer when I reached BB age.

He was also secretary of Thistle for a couple of years in the late 60s, and I played the records on match-days at Kingsmills during that time. They wouldn't let me do the announcements because my voice hadn't broken. Although my heart was with Caley, it was great for a young kid to see a football club from the inside, and to watch Thistle turn into a free-scoring goal machine - Tony Fraser, Ian Stephen, Johnny Cowie, Bobby McLean, et al. My Dad didn't get on with Jock McDonald, so he resigned after a couple of seasons, before the Jags actually won the league.

Dragging this back on topic, Dad worked for the Highland Health Board, so my first golf, before I joined IGC, was round the mountainous course at the Craig.  The only course where you needed crampons rather than spikes!

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