Closure threatens Western Isles course

• Great Britain’s most westerly golf course threatened with closure
• Isle of Barra members believe a clubhouse would save them
• A Crowdfunder page has been set-up – target is £20,000

A golf course recognised as the most westerly in Great Britain is expected to close unless funding can be secured to build a clubhouse.

A Crowdfunder campaign has been set-up to help Isle of Barra Golf Course in the Western Isles with a target of £20,000 in mind, a figure that must be matched should the course want to continue operating.

Built in 1992, Isle of Barra’s nine-hole layout features stunning views across the Atlantic Ocean, with visitors travelling from countries such Australia and Canada to play the unique course, which is maintained by volunteer members and where the method of payment is via a donation box.

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But membership numbers, for which an annual fee of £75 is paid, have dwindled to as low as 15 from a high of almost 70, while junior members are being kept away due to the lack of facilities on-site.

“The golf course will definitely close unless we get a clubhouse,” said member Murdoch MacKinnon, with the only form of shelter available at the course a steel container where all the machinery is kept. “We’ve kept putting it off over the years but now we’re in a panic situation where we have to do something.

“With the climate we have up here, the weather can change in an instant so we need somewhere that visitors can take shelter and have a cup of coffee and we’re positive that if this did happen, we’d see our membership go up.”

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“Us members, we’re not particularly good golfers but over the past few years, we got kids to come up on Tuesday and Thursday nights and two or three of us would try and teach them,” he added. “We had up to 30 youngsters coming at one point but that totally died off purely because we don’t have a facility up there. Parents are reluctant to send their children up to a place that has no facilities and I totally understand that.”

A lot of hard work and hours has been taken up maintaining the course in its 24-year existence, something which Murdoch, who has been a member since it opened and is now in his early 70s, understandably doesn’t want to lose.

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“The 15 of us go out and use strimmers and mowers to try and clean things up and we’re usually out from around 8.30am until 4pm. We’ve got electric fences around the greens to keep the cattle and sheep out because they’re roaming all the time and when you tee off at the first, you’re sure to have 50 cattle standing there watching you, which is a nice novelty that the golf course has.

“We’re fully aware we don’t have an Augusta out there but what we do have are beautiful views and people seem to love the course because when visitors have come, we’ve received some wonderful comments in our comments box.”

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Isle of Barra :: Help them out!

Have you ever played on the golf course at the Isle of Barra? If so, let us know what you thought of it below. To donate to the cause, head to the Isle of Barra Crowdfunder page here.