A major Scottish golf club has created a new website that celebrates the abundance of flora, fauna and wildlife that’s thriving on its historic links.
Created by Royal Dornoch’s past captain Professor David Bell, the site highlights how the club’s long-time commitment to sustainability and biodiversity is being rewarded. Professor Bell has taken to the linksland, which is home to Royal Dornoch’s Championship and the Struie Courses, swapping clubs for a camera to capture marvellous images of the natural environment which golfers can savour in pursuit of birdies, eagles and the occasional albatross.
“Growing up in Dornoch, my father would take me bird watching on the links and the coastal path which runs by the golf courses,” he recalled. “Like golf, it has been a lifelong passion.
“I have always been aware of the wonderful array of wildlife that thrives on or near our celebrated golf courses.
“Royal Dornoch was delighted to be one of 27 UK golf courses selected by The R&A to be part of their wide-ranging ‘Golf Course Biodiversity Project.’
“We are well into the five-year study, and an interim report has already recorded 174 different species on our two courses, with more than 20 of these in the protected or notable bracket.
“These include the small blue butterfly – one of the rarest in the country – and birds like redshank, curlew and skylark. The challenge now is to get images of all 174 on the new website.
“I particularly liked one photograph of a revetted bunker on the Struie which the greenkeeping team ensured was of action while a sand martin made itself at home during the nesting season.
“There is a misconception that golf courses are incompatible with the natural environment. That is well wide of the mark, as we are seeing at Royal Dornoch, where there are huge swathes of land where Mother Nature is in her element.
“Sustainability was a key factor in the design of our new clubhouse and it will be the same when we embark on ambitious plans for a third course in the future.
As part of The R&A project, deputy course manager Scott Aitchison and his award-winning greenkeeping team have been charting the flowers, rare orchids, grasses, insects, birds, otters and other mammals either present on or spotted from the golf courses they tend.
Several holes on the Struie Course run alongside the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA) and the greenkeepers have been working closely with various partners and Dornoch Academy to revitalise under-threat salt marshes and mitigate the effects of coastal erosion.
Royal Dornoch’s determination to protect and enhance its natural assets through environmental stewardship has been recognised with the award of regularly monitored GEO Certification.
“Walkers, joggers, cyclists and dog walkers make good use of the shoreline path to Embo and beyond which is part of the embryonic John O’ Groats Way. The new website illustrates the rich biodiversity here and what they should be looking out for as they pass by the golf courses and through the dunes,” said Professor Bell.
Visit https://royal-nature-dtptvfcq/ to view images of the abundant wildlife, flora and fauna being nurtured at one of the world’s most famous golf clubs.