Ecosse Regeneration has commissioned PGA Design Consulting Ltd to design a 36 hole golf complex at Whitburn, Scotland, midway between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The golf courses are part of a 520 hectare master planned community, next to Whitburn. McInally Associates have masterminded the overall development with Entec dealing with all environmental issues.
The proposal includes residential housing, a business park, hotels, golf courses, leisure and educational facilities with a new access planned from the M8. It is an enormous investment in an area that has not seen such opportunities in the past.
The former coalmine site is currently derelict land with large bings (coal waste heaps). These are being reclaimed as part of a 28 million cubic metre earthworks contract. It is envisaged that earthworks on the golf course alone will take about 30 months before golf construction can start.
The golf courses are planned as a memorial to the famous Scottish golf course architect Donald Ross. Although Ross did not design in Scotland, his fame in the USA is legendary. PGA Design Consulting is working with the Donald Ross Society, to design two very different courses at the centre of the site.
One of the courses will be a moorland course with few trees whilst the other course will be densely wooded as part of an enormous reforestation programme. Mixed woodland will be planted between fairways allowing not only interesting golf design but also the opportunity to create further habitat diversity.
The site contains some important natural habitat with peat moorland and small mammals being important features. Pollution that includes burning bings will be treated as part of the site restoration programme.
New peat wetlands and moorland will be created. Also new streams and burns will be specially designed to encourage and protect small mammals in the future.
Water features on the site will be kept relatively small but again habitat diversity has been an important consideration. The water bodies will all assist to relieve downstream flooding problems
At the centre of the golf course will sit a state of the art clubhouse and country club to service the needs of visiting golfers and residents alike.
When completed the golf courses will be maintained as part of an ecologically based maintenance programme with integrated pest management minimising all artificial inputs to the site.
For further information please contact:
PGA Design Consulting Ltd
Bob Hunt,
Phone: +44 (0)117 952 7585
E-mail: bob.hunt@pgadc.com
McInally Associates
Tom McInally
Phone: +44 (0)141 332 5181
E-mail: tommcinally@mcinally-associates.co.uk
PGA Design Consulting www.pgadc.com