CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
“Top Edinburgh golf club could be turned into retirement village”
(16 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Kind of already is, this is just extending the care 24/7
Posted 5 years ago # -
A walking/cycling connection between Priestfield Road and Duddingston Low Road/Innocent Path would be incredibly useful if that could be wrangled into the plans. Not sure if one could be negotiated on mitigation of transport impact grounds, as I suspect cycling rates in a retirement village are going to be very low. Although could be useful for commuting employees?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Hmm. They can put themselves in "a very strong position financially" by selling three holes, two buildings and a car park to developers. Or they can clear their existing debt and still be left with £100K cash in hand by selling just one building (which would presumably be turned in to a residence, or small business premises). Sounds to me as if there's something else going on behind the scenes there. It's not particularly surprising that some members are not happy.
I'm no great fan of golf courses myself but, given the choice (which I realise in this case I'm not) I think I'd rather retain a bit of green space in the city. I also wonder how much of the redesign of the course would involve obliterating some of a remaining tree cover in favour of grass monoculture. (However, I do think that both the headline and the first paragraph of the article itself are more than a little misleading, implying as they seem to that the contentious proposal would result in the club disappearing entirely, rather than being remodelled.)
@gembo: I know what you mean, but to be fair to the club the article does highlight the good work it has done in the recent past with junior golfers. (Not that I can really see a massive need to bring up further generations of people who can't enjoy a walk in the countryside without spoiling it by chasing a ball.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
@toomanybikes
It is a mistake to assume people of retirement age can't or won't cycle. E-bikes can make cycling very easy and sociable for them and often easier than walking.
And often, as people get older, they have to give up driving altogether. Why not get them on e-bikes?
Posted 5 years ago # -
The golfers in my work have been discussing the parlous state of club finances for years, and Prestonfield is one name that crops up regularly.
There are too many clubs, most with declining memberships and revenue is drying up. Also some clubs have been run by committees who aren’t always competent which has resulted in some truly awful financial decisions.
Expect to see more clubs close/restructure over the next few years. While it would be helpful for the council to take this into account in its plans, the difficulty is they can’t identify exactly which clubs will close.
Posted 5 years ago # -
There's a good book in the demise of Edinburgh golf from the summer of 2008 when weird clubs on the side of hills had two year waiting lists and Prestonfield, if I remember correctly, required payment of membership from those on its waiting list.
It's a sport that got itself associated with social conservatism and anti-ecology just at the point that young people veered away from both.
I like golf as the ultimate psychological immolation and believe it could be rescued by a return to basics. Wooden shafted clubs, guttie balls, sheep on the fairways.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@neddie I guess I'm thinking of retirement homes as being populated with people a particularly frail and in need of care sample of the generation beyond retirement age (65). However, from my very limited experience of retirement homes, there's likely to be a bit of a mix.
Plus don't they say cycling is the new golf?
Posted 5 years ago # -
A friend who was a golf secretary said that one issue is that older chaps are more likely to be hands-on grand-dads looking after the grand-children while both parents work. Once that would not have been a man's role when he was retired.
Also had words to say about committees.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I witnessed the transition of one company from golf-based networking to cycle-based networking.
Glentress and sportives as the places where folk did the talking instead of Gullane and Bruntsfield.
Posted 5 years ago # -
My company is still stuck at Gullane. I teased a young chap about picking up the clubs and following the career path via the green.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@WRATS: There is a good book, or there's a good book that could be written?
Torphin and Lothianburn are the two close to me that have closed in the last ten years or so. (I don't count the Hermitage Golf Course as IMO it didn't stay open long enough to really count. Autism Ventures do seem to have a bit of a sad history of failed initiatives.)
Torphin seems to be being built on; Lothianburn may be turned in to MTB trails.
In the mean time Swanston seems to go from strength to strength - so it looks like some clubs know how to move with the times - while Merchants of Edinburgh and Mortonhall seem to trundle along pretty much as they always have done.
(Torphin was a favorite of a pal of mine who went to Merchiston Castle School back in the 1970s and 80s. I'm sure I've heard him mention that the school had a golf course which has now been built on. I think that may have been in the area now occupied by the modern development to the north of Katesmill Road.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
@ejstubbs
I think there's a potential book. For a writer unafraid of defamation.
My favourite course is this one in the back garden of the gentleman who owns The Dome.
Posted 5 years ago # -
sheep on the fairways.
Apologies for straying
furthercompletely off-topic, but my dad was telling me recently that when Tarlair golf club first opened (in Macduff, for the non-North Easters), they got a sheep farmer from the other side of town (near the distillery) to graze his sheep there through the week.So every Monday morning he and two dogs took a herd of sheep all the way through town, up to the golf course. Then every Friday afternoon they did the same in reverse. The dogs were so good at this that the farmer could take a shortcut and meet them further along.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Frenchy
That is lovely. I've seen sheep moving themselves along single track roads between fields quite recently. The dogs had just moved the lead sheep and the rest followed, followed.
The course on Iona was sheep-mown when I was there last, indeed I had to move some cows off a green. This is the only time I've moved cows which I'm actually a bit nervous of being a townie.
Posted 5 years ago #
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