Scotland: Farmers buy castle course

Hundreds of members have been left heartbroken after a Scottish course closed this weekend.

Lothians club Castle Park had hosted competitions for junior golfers run by the Stephen Gallacher Foundation but will now revert to farmland.

Member Colin Hamilton said: “I’m absolutely gutted it’s not going to be a course any more. The amount of work that went into it in the last 20 years, and all of a sudden it’s going to be ploughed.

“I just love the place, absolutely love it. I don’t think they’ve thought it through.”

Owner Jim Wilson said the 18-hole course had suffered an “unprecedented” loss of members since he retired in December last year, which has forced them into the sale.

Castle Park opened in 1994 and started life as a nine-hole course, before being expanded 10 years later.

‘I just love the place, absolutely love it’ The course takes its name from the ruins of Yester Castle, which overlooks the 14th green and the news comes after Lothianburn and Torphin Hill also closed within the last 18 months.

Malcolm Duck, director of East Lothian’s Scotland Golf Coast marketing campaign, said the course had fallen victim to a lack of demand.

He said: “It’s a great shame Castle Park is closing. I think it’s very sad but there are too many golf courses and so you’re going to get fewer people on the courses.”

Duck added that the owners had received no offers to keep the site as a golf course, since advertising it for sale before Christmas.

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