Following one of the wettest winters in recent history, Alnmouth Village Golf Club is at risk of being lost to coastal erosion.
Located on the Northumbrian coast, the club was founded in 1869, making it the oldest nine-hole links course in England.
As with several other links courses around the extremities of the United Kingdom, coastal erosion has become a key factor in recent years. At Alnmouth Village, plans are quickly being put into place in an attempt to make sure the course survives.
Ian Simpson, Secretary at Alnmouth Village, said: “It hasn’t taken away any of the course yet and we can still play all nine holes. It has exposed some of the land very close to the 5th green and if we don’t do something about it then it will take away our 5th green this year.
“Over the last 20 years, a lot of that coastline [north-east England] has been taken away. We were obviously aware that we were close to the sea but not to the extent that we were in danger. A lot of that coastline is protected by big concrete blocks and, as it happens, the part that has been taken away, towards our 5th green, there were no blocks there.”
Alnmouth Village are just one of several clubs around the country where coastal erosion is becoming a problem, if it hasn’t already started to encroach on golfing ground.
However, there are now plans in place for the Northumberland club to fix the issue, so it can remain standing as the country’s oldest nine-hole links course.
How are Alnmouth Village planning to combat the problem of coastal erosion?
There are plenty of different versions of coastal defences that can be seen around the world.
Simpson looked into an experimental process called InsepraBALL. However, he and the club have opted to go down a more traditional route in an attempt to save their golf course.
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“The solution we are looking at is paying privately to have some armoured rock put down, which is locally quarried stone,” he said.
“If you can picture the big harbours, they have big rocks around them, and that is the sort of thing that we are looking at. We had a company come in to give us a quote and we imagine that it will be in the tens of thousands [of pounds].
“We have about 100 metres to fill with this armoured rock, and there is the process of getting it onto the beach, transportation and everything else that goes with it. They reckon it’s about a two-week job.
However, the club are having to go it alone when it comes to funding as the club being built and based on private land.
“I have been speaking to the local Conservative councillor and he has been on our side. However, we have hit a brick wall when it comes to funding from them because we are classed as private land,” Simpson explained of the situation.
“If it was a dwelling, a house at risk, then there would be funding available. A £25 million sea defence fund has been allocated by the Northumberland County Council but we can’t dip into that unfortunately. It has to come from our club funds. Whatever we have, we will have to use. We will try and look for funding elsewhere but I don’t know if it will be available.”
Funding has been an issue at Fortrose & Rosemarkie as well. The Scottish club suffered badly from storm damage in the first couple of months of 2024.
The damage to the coastline has seen the historic Highlands links set up a GoFundMe page because they cannot afford the repairs and the possible moving of holes.
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Other Scottish course are at risk as well, with Montrose – the fifth oldest golf course in the world – losing seven metres of its coastline over the last year.
If the plans do not work at Alnmouth Village, that won’t put an end to the club’s 155-year history. Instead, they would look at getting more land so they could redesign the layout away from the eroded coast. However, Simpson explained that this would be a lot more difficult than it sounds.
“We have not looked at changing the design per se, but if we were to lose that green then we would look at putting a green in somewhere else at great expense. That would be our only option,” the club’s secretary stated.
“We are fairly tied that the land we have got is under a licence from the Burgage Holders, who own various houses in the village. They have a lease from the Duke of Northumberland to maintain the common, which is where we play golf on.
“It is a complicated situation, but we would have to get more land off them to move our 5th green in to.”
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