End in sight for Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club’s six-figure battle against coastal erosion as February targeted for works to be completed
Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club hope that work to prevent coastal erosion will be completed by the end of February 2025.
Particularly bad storms at this time last year saw five-to-six metres of erosion in the areas around the first and second tees at the club, with the first steps to combat the damage expected to cost the club £140,000 plus VAT.
The golf club, which has played host to a number of national championships and is believed to be the 15th oldest golf course in the world, pledged to enter discussions with Scottish Water and Highland Council, as well as exploring crowdfunders and grants from the likes of Nature Scotland.
Those have raised tens of thousands of pounds, with the still-open GoFundMe having recently passed £30,000, Scottish Water having contributed £43,000, and Highland Council putting £6000 towards the works – which have cost £163,000 in total so far.
That has helped Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club make a difference to the course already, but more work will still need to be done to safeguard against future erosion.
Club secretary Mike Macdonald says the rest of the work will cost a similar amount to what has already been spent, but he is optimistic that the end is in sight.
“It’s still a work in progress, but I’m hoping that we’ll be done by the end of February,” he commented.
“It’s going to cost the club a lot of money, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. I would say we’re probably around halfway there, maybe even less than that.
“We’ll obviously dip into what reserves we have, but we just need to get this finished. Our membership renewals come at the end of January, so we should hopefully see a bit of money coming in from that which should largely cover the remaining costs.
“Visually there’s already a massive difference, which is a good positive. Compared to this time last year it’s night and day to be honest.
“We have to put other things on hold to do this. We could have been working on a refurbishment of the clubhouse, or bought machinery outright that we’ve had to finance, that we haven’t been able to do.
“It has 100 per cent affected other parts of the club, but I’ve been telling people that we’ll get there - it will just take a wee bit of time.
“We might just have to tighten the belts for another year. We have to do this, this is our number one priority at the end of the day. Nothing else compares, so we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”
