New inquiry starts over controversial Scottish golf course

A four-day inquiry into plans for a controversial new golf course in Scotland got underway yesterday.

The Scottish Government will be presented the case for Coul Links, in Sutherland, for the second time this week after the first application was rejected.

It comes more than eight years after the first plans were unveiled for the championship layout in Embo.

The government will review the decision of the Highland Council’s planning committee, which voted to approve the development on the protected site.

Business experts, professionals and locals will give evidence, while the Directors of Communities for Coul (C4C) and Coul Links landowner Edward Abel Smith will defend the plans.

But it will meet opposition from Professor Jim Hansom and Dr Chris Ellis of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, as well as leader of local campaign group Not Coul, Dr Tom Dargie.

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Ariane Burgess MSP is another against the proposal while Jamie Stone MP is set to pledge his support for Coul Links.

The hearing will culminate in a public inquiry on Thursday evening. The Press and Journal has reported that around 60 people are expected to attend.

The project began in 2015, when US entrepreneur Todd Warnock claimed he was behind plans for a “world-class” course in the area – less than five miles from Royal Dornoch.

An £8-10 million proposal was then submitted for planning approval in 2017.

Gordon Sutherland, C4C director, argued a £50 million investment in the development would create 400 full-time jobs and generate around £12 million for the economy each year.

His plans were called in by the government in February before five Highland politicians penned a joint letter offering support.

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Fergus Ewing of the SNP said: “This is a totemic issue: will the Scottish Government throw its full support behind the ‘Highland David’ versus the wealthy metropolitan pressure groups’ ‘Goliath’?”

Meanwhile, the Scotsman has reported that Professor Stewart Angus, coastal ecology manager with NatureScot, slammed the proposals on day one of the hearing.

He said the invertebrate population and epiphytes would be “not just severely reduced” by fairway mowing at Coul Links, but “almost eliminated”.

Dr Andy McMullen, an academic and botanist acting for C4C, argued otherwise.

“We’ve got a very experienced greenkeeper here with a range of techniques and we’ll be seeking to achieve these things,” he said.

“Just because one course hasn’t achieved it in a particular instance going from grassland doesn’t mean that we can’t achieve it, because we will be approaching things on a rather more experimental level and trying to achieve that.”

John Turnbull A graduate of the University of Stirling, John joined the bunkered team in 2023 as a Content Producer, with a responsibility for covering all breaking news, tour news, grassroots content and much more besides. A keen golfer, he plays the majority of his golf at Falkirk Golf Club. Top of his 'bucket list' is a round of Pebble Beach... ideally in the company of Gareth Bale.