We spent a few weeks over in Scotland from November 2021- March 2022. It was perhaps not the most obvious of times to visit the auld country, but in fact the weather was surprisingly nice (until mid Feb), we did a little bit of travelling and played a lot of golf.
This post is just focussed around this period. Some of the major items in the news at the time included: Omicron; Boris Johnson exposed as a charlatan (again); Russia and Ukraine; the ongoing saga over the assault on the US 1/6/21; a big correction in tech and especially bio-tech - move over Kathy Woods. OK, let’s check out some good stuff:
Below are some early morning pics in Gullane and at North Berwick Golf Course. (NBGC) My fellow players - Alan, Ian and Steve like to be out first. So sometimes the light was just breaking through as we teed it up. I think these pics suggest it was worthwhile getting up in the semi-dark:
Fantastic. Some mornings the temperature was as low in the “feels like” category of mid 30’F (0’C) area, and it seemed like a westerly wind prevailed which only added to the fun. The first 8 holes were more or less into it all the way; also adding to the challenge was a low sun that only seemed to hit you on the 9th tee. Sometimes it felt like a 4-5 club headwind: the par 3 fourth hole was a three wood on some days. I did manage a 75 one morning, going out 43 and back in 32. That morning, the wind was really fun to play against for 8 holes, then completely died as we got to 9 that day, and for once, some putts actually dropped.
Anyway, back to the pics. Here’s some looks as the mornings progressed:
Fantastic conditions to play on a wonderful golf course. By the way, my guys play quickly: a 4 ball starting at 8.30 and we are in having coffee around 11.30. The coffee at NBGC is a subject of intense interest…the bacon rolls are very excellent. I discovered that there is so much demand for play that no further visitor bookings were being taken for 2022.
Now over to Renaissance: TRCAA, home of The Scottish Open for the next few years. Lots of changes to the course following visits from Tom Doak and Padraigh Harrington: new bunkers, new dunes, a load of trees and buckthorn taken out to enhance the visuals, plus many new tree and gorse bush (1,000) plantings. It is going to look amazing come July. And that tournament should be the biggest ever in Scotland outside The Open as it will be the first ever combined Euro-PGA tour event. Jerry and Paul had this amazing vision for the place and have really executed well in my view. What’s also really cool about the Club is there are times when there are only a few members present, so it’s easy to play, and the staff and food service, plus gym and changing facilities are all really great too.
Here’s some pics of the course and the bay at the 10th looking towards Fidra:
Snow in Fife, but sunny and fresh in East Lothian!
TRCAA is one tough golf course to play. One of the pros, Paul Wardell fixed a small worry over chip shot sh@nk*, and held group coaching sessions on Friday mornings which Gill enjoyed.
Below are a couple of views of The Glen golf course we took from Drift, the curious coffee place built from a couple of containers just outside North Berwick along the road towards Tantallon Castle. To be honest, the location is great but I think the coffee is really average. The scones and views are superb though. The other pics are from the west end of the Glen looking back at North Berwick:
If you drive a little past Drift, you can see the impressive Tantallon Castle overlooking the Bass Rock. And from there, you can take a drive down to Seacliff Bay. We took a short one day trip to Hopetoun Tower, then to Gifford - the excellent Lanterne Rouge cafe, Stoneypath Tower, Preston Mill and finally SeaCliff Bay.
Hopetoun Tower is in a very cool location; you can see for miles all over East Lothian. We did not climb to the top but some claim to be able to see the Cairngorms on a clear day. It’s a real good alternative to climbing the Law for views of the area.
The name of Lantern Rouge relates to cycling: the cyclist who is last on the Tour de France has the honour of having a red lantern hanging off the back of his bike. Surprisingly, the place was full of - cyclists! Good soup and a great hostess. Lantern Rouge
Stoneypath Tower is ancient; originally built in the fourteenth century, it’s been restored and looks magnificent. Preston Mill is a very old watermill in the delightful village of East Linton. Not sure I’d go out of my way to see it again, but there is a world famous butcher in town which is worth grabbing some award winning sausages from. East Linton Butcher
Seacliff Bay is another of those very cute little bays dotted along the coast going down towards Dunbar.
And this is Tantallon Castle with the Bass Rock in the background.
When we were at Gifford, we tried to find Yester castle, and failed! It’s home to the Goblin Ha’ dungeon area and offers many stories of witchery and the like. There’s a terrific concise history of the place at: Yester castle
The castle was first built in the late 12th century. Hugo de Giffard was reputed to be a warlock and a necromancer, and according to the legend he had summoned hobgoblins to build a subterranean vault under his castle, known as Bohall or Goblin Ha’, that he used for his demoniac activities. Well, a man should have an occupation… .
But what we did find was The CastlePark Golf course, an unexpected surprise. It’s not too far from the 9 hole Gifford Golf Club. It looks to be set in some fun country side. One of the guys I met described the back nine as quite magnificent and also referred to the 12th simply as “cardiac”. I will surely need to discover what he meant. Peter Aliss described it as the “Gleneagles of the South”, and it clearly looks quite different from most other links courses in the region. I think Peter may have had a few sharpeners before he made that comment though. This is a link to the Club: https://www.castleparkgolfclub.co.uk
The Clubhouse.
We also played a couple of times at Archerfield. The Fidra course is going through some major renovations on 1 and 9 which will make those holes really amazing. I like the feel at Archerfield. The Clubhouse is really nice. The food is good and the service is great. The two golf courses are really good too. I prefer Fidra which is tree lined and hugs the coast, and offers some nice views into the fabulous homes at Kings Cairn: the Scottish equivalent of the American dream I guess.
We also enjoyed a little trip into Galloway via the Southern uplands. Fantastic countryside. We stayed at Corsewall lighthouse and visited a few golf courses in the area including one in Portpatrick. We also visited another very famous one further up the coast in Ayr which was the site of that fabulous match between Henrik and Phil. We had a quick visit to Culzean Castle which is very cool. On the way from Galloway, you pass Turnberry, but on principle we did not stop by and will not until there is a change of owner. The latest news is he proposes to pardon all involved in the January 6 assault; I mean what more does it take to disown this guy? Also, let’s not forget:
On December 3, 2019, as part of the impeachment inquiry, the House Intelligence Committee published a 300-page report detailing that "the impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection. In furtherance of this scheme, President Trump conditioned official acts on a public announcement by the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of politically-motivated investigations, including one into Joe Biden, one of Trump's domestic political opponents. In pressuring President Zelenskyy to carry out his demand, President Trump withheld a White House meeting desperately sought by the Ukrainian President, and critical U.S. military assistance to fight Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine."[22]: 8 In January 2020, the Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan watchdog, concluded that the White House broke federal law by withholding Congress-approved military aid to Ukraine.[23]
Into the Borders. I had not been to Melrose for maybe 35 years, and really enjoyed going back. We saw Walter Scott’s famous house at Abbotsford. Melrose Abbey is crumbling a bit now, but the viaduct and the Wallace Statue and Scott’s viewpoint are magnificent. Finally, there’s the Temple of the Muses also a must visit. The country side is really spectacular. It’s just incredible to see those lovely rolling hills and lush farm lands.
After an overnight at the Marshall Manor hotel - very nice place to stay - just north of Berwick upon Tweed, we sauntered up the coast and popped in to all the little port areas, including Eyemouth - fun golf course - St Abb’s Head, Pease Bay, Cove, and Dunbar - really great golf course. Some of these little harbours look so narrow and require expert handling to navigate. The surge at Eyemouth was quite incredible. It was an amazing day with high winds and surf I had never seen before on the firth.
And here’s a couple of pics I took on my way back from picking up an Indian takeaway from Aberlady - it wasn’t very good unfortunately - but these skies made it all worthwhile:
Longniddry Bents is also home to a fine dining experience: Alanda’s Fish and Chips. They have a truck where they serve some fine delicacies indeed, and the views as noted above, really can be quite spectacular.
Our timing was good as there were several rugby Internationals being played at Murrayfield. Sarah and I saw the Boks and they looked different class; we did manage to beat Japan, revenge for a dismal showing at the World Cup perhaps. Then England and France in the Six nations league. I only ever played rugby once, under duress, but love to go see these games. I was also fortunate to hear Gavin Hastings, one of Scottish rugby’s greatest ever players speak about the clash with the auld enemy, England, for the Calcutta Cup.
Scotland and England participate in the Six nations Championship - along with France, Ireland, Italy and Wales - but the two sides also play for The Calcutta Cup. It was first played for in 1879. England have the best record as for years Scottish rugby was very much second best. There were a few famous highlights including a glorious match in 1990. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFU66quiLMI. England were red hot favourites and the match was just amazing, with Scotland winning.
Sarah and I went to Murrayfield on Feb 5th - a wet windy and really cold day. Fantastic weather for rugby! And a great result if you were Scottish. A glorious moment for a debut International player and a penalty try awarded decided a very tight and thrilling game. Gill and I went to see the French game. This historically has been a fantastic event and Edinburgh really has a fantastic atmosphere when the French fans are in town. Unfortunately, we were on the end of a really good French team, and lost badly!
We managed to get up to Pitlochry to see Gill’s brother Keith and his wife Susan. The town is in a really pretty setting offering lovely walks, and has an excellent golf course. It’s a strenuous up the hill march for 5 holes then back down zig zagging across the hill until the Clubhouse beckons. The lounge is great and the staff are terrific. It’s a bargain to join the Club right now, and with other clubs in trouble around the area, this is one that will survive and offer Members a really terrific golf experience.
We also had a short break to Cardrona in the borders. Stayed at the MacDonald Hotel there - they used to own Rusacks in St Andrews and The Marine in North Berwick - not a bad portfolio! Both have been sold to a private equity group. I think they did a really nice job in North Berwick, but not so convinced after our stay in July at St Andrews. The Cardrona golf course is supposed to be good but sadly it was snowy and windy when we were there so we abandoned our planned round. (https://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/cardrona)
On the way there we stopped by “The Great Polish Map of Scotland”. This is an amazing sculpture, the vision of two Polish guys, one of whom had fought in the second Great War and stayed rather than go to live in Communist Poland. The map was built over 6 years in the 70’s and restored in 2017. The Barony Castle hotel close by looks quite nice. (https://www.baronycastle.com).
Towards the end of our visit, I enjoyed a real treat at Muirfield with my neighbour Jim C. We had attempted to play twice but were stymied first by storm Malik, and then by another storm, although we did have the famous lunches. Met some real characters, as you might expect at a club with such a rich history. February really turned into what we thought Scotland would be like from November. Some wild winds. In fact, the storms were unprecedented all across the country. Nine storm warmings were issued in February alone. Anyone say climate change? Well, it seems the evidence is mixed at this point, but the jet stream which was more northern than usual, and which accounted for the mild December- January, moved south and this caused the storms. The water southern air energised the cooler northern air creating the low pressures and thus the storms. Over time, coastal flooding and more frequent storms are in Scotland’s future due to climate change, but equally, some parts will experience drier weather. And that’s what makes climate change so difficult to garner consensus around mitigation and adaptation.
Hard to capture just how wild this storm was, but it was impressive.
I mentioned my putting has been pretty dire on this trip - sometimes accounting for half my total score. The problem was in part not getting the speed of the green right, but also sometimes just the sheer size of the putting area - its very easy to 3 putt over here; sometimes it’s just because you are putting from 100 feet, which in the States you would not try, and instead we’d pitch or chip instead. Nevertheless, something had to be done, so we transformed the front garden into an artificial surface with putting holes. We did plant around 60 heathers and azaleas and in truth the area never grew very much so I do feel like we did a better job for the planet.
So that’s about it. A fun time back home in the auld country, and looking forward to revisiting in June.