| Club History
- by Willie Miller (contd...)
In those days when road traffic was still horse-drawn,
the fastest and most convenient form of travel was by train, and
the choice of site was heavily influenced by the existence of the
nearby railway station and siding which served the stone quarry
(the one now filled in, to the left of the first fairway) and which
had been built after the opening of the Forth Bridge in 1890.
The land chosen, covering the area now occupied
by the 11th, 12th 13th, 14th and 15th holes, plus the east ends
of the 4th, 5th and 10th, was covered in whins, criss-crossed with
dry stane dykes and grazed by sheep, but those responsible for
the acquisition obviously had the imagination to picture its suitability
for the creation of a Golf Course.
A nine hole course was ready to be opened on 6th
October 1897 as the tickets for the event record, but subsequently
more land was leased and the course was extended to eighteen holes
by 1900.
The first 'Clubhouse' was a wooden hut which stood
near what is now the fifteenth green, but by 1898, Hasties Cottage,
the building which stands in the corner of the car park and is
now one of the greenkeepers' buildings was acquired and opened
as the new Clubhouse on 17th August 1898. The ticket announcing
the event noted that tea would be served in the large upper room:
Sixpence plain; with cold meat, one shilling.
For the convenience of members leaving in the
evening it was noted that a train, with saloon, would stop at Turnhouse
Station at 10.42 pm, arriving in Edinburgh at 10.55.
In 1910, a new Clubhouse, constructed at a cost
estimated at £1647.10/- was opened on the present site, and
has gradually been extended and improved since that date.
The Lothian Golf Club was incorporated as a Limited
Company on 28th February 1905 and it is only from the date of the
first Minuted Council meeting , (held in Kay's Union Hotel, Lothian
Rd.) on Monday 20th March, that continuous Club records are available.
In 1909, the name of the Club was changed to the Turnhouse Golf
Club Ltd. and much of the Constitution as it exists today, was
adopted It is interesting to note that on 10th May 1907, it was
unanimously decided to form a Golf Club called the Turnhouse Ladies'
Golf Club, therefore Turnhouse Ladies pre-date Turnhouse G.C. Ltd
by two years.
The course remained largely unchanged from 1900
until 1924, when alterations suggested after a survey by James
Braid were put into practice. The other major change came in 1950,
when along with the opening of the practice ground, the present
7th and 8th were brought into use.
The full story of the Club's history can be seen
in the book published in 1997 on the occasion of the Centenary
of Turnhouse Golf Course.
This book can be purchased for £7.50 plus
P&P. Please make cheques/postal orders payable to "Turnhouse
Golf Club Ltd".
Click
Here to order your copy.
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