Turnhouse Golf Club>

by Willie Miller

The game of Golf is first mentioned in 1457. That year, and in 1471 and 1491, Parliament, Town Councils, Kirk Sessions and Guilds made many efforts to suppress the game by issuing decrees banning it. This indicates that interest in the game (although quite different from the game we know today) was widespread and not just confined to the upper classes. It continued to be enjoyed by men (and women) from a wide range of social backgrounds into the eighteenth century, when with the introduction of Societies of Golfing Gentlemen with their rules and more expensively crafted clubs and balls, it began to become a sport available only to the more wealthy citizens, a situation that lasted well into the twentieth century. These golfing societies, apart from a few really wealthy ones which had their own private ground, had to share common courses. In the second half of the 19th century, the majority of Edinburgh golfers played at Musselburgh Links.

It was at Musselburgh in 1893 that the Lothian Golf Club, the forerunner of Turnhouse Golf Club, was formed, but by that time there were about 60 such non-course owning Clubs in Edinburgh and the available courses like Musselburgh were becoming so congested that, particularly on competition days, long delays were inevitable and many of the attached Clubs who considered they could afford it began to think of finding land where they could create their own course.

 
The Lothian Club must have begun their search fairly soon after their inauguration, for within four years and after viewing many sites, they had leased an area of forty acres at Lennie Hill on the road to Stirling, from a farmer, Mr. Stenhouse of Turnhouse.

In those days when road traffic was still horse-drawn, the fastest and most convenient form of travel was by train, and the choice of site was heavily influenced by the existence of the nearby railway station and siding which served the stone quarry (the one now filled in, to the left of the first fairway) and which had been built after the opening of the Forth Bridge in 1890.

 
In those days when road traffic was still horse-drawn, the fastest and most convenient form of travel was by train, and the choice of site was heavily influenced by the existence of the nearby railway station and siding which served the stone quarry (the one now filled in, to the left of the first fairway) and which had been built after the opening of the Forth Bridge in 1890.

The land chosen, covering the area now occupied by the 11th, 12th 13th, 14th and 15th holes, plus the east ends of the 4th, 5th and 10th, was covered in whins, criss-crossed with dry stane dykes and grazed by sheep, but those responsible for the acquisition obviously had the imagination to picture its suitability for the creation of a Golf Course.

 
A nine hole course was ready to be opened on 6th October 1897 as the tickets for the event record, but subsequently more land was leased and the course was extended to eighteen holes by 1900.

The first 'Clubhouse' was a wooden hut which stood near what is now the fifteenth green, but by 1898, Hasties Cottage, the building which stands in the corner of the car park and is now one of the greenkeepers' buildings was acquired and opened as the new Clubhouse on 17th August 1898. The ticket announcing the event noted that tea would be served in the large upper room: Sixpence plain; with cold meat, one shilling.

For the convenience of members leaving in the evening it was noted that a train, with saloon, would stop at Turnhouse Station at 10.42 pm, arriving in Edinburgh at 10.55.

In 1910, a new Clubhouse, constructed at a cost estimated at £1647.10/- was opened on the present site, and has gradually been extended and improved since that date.

The Lothian Golf Club was incorporated as a Limited Company on 28th February 1905 and it is only from the date of the first Minuted Council meeting , (held in Kay's Union Hotel, Lothian Rd.) on Monday 20th March, that continuous Club records are available. In 1909, the name of the Club was changed to the Turnhouse Golf Club Ltd. and much of the Constitution as it exists today, was adopted It is interesting to note that on 10th May 1907, it was unanimously decided to form a Golf Club called the Turnhouse Ladies' Golf Club, therefore Turnhouse Ladies pre-date Turnhouse G.C. Ltd by two years.

The course remained largely unchanged from 1900 until 1924, when alterations suggested after a survey by James Braid were put into practice. The other major change came in 1950, when along with the opening of the practice ground, the present 7th and 8th were brought into use.

The full story of the Club's history can be seen in the book published in 1997 on the occasion of the Centenary of Turnhouse Golf Course.

This book can be purchased for £7.50 plus P&P. Please make cheques/postal orders payable to "Turnhouse Golf Club Ltd".

Click Here to order your copy.