Legal battle over controversial golf course plan at protected Scottish Highland wilderness to begin

For golf aficionados and nature lovers across Scotland, it is a proposal that will be all too familiar - a new, world-class links golf course, backed by a wealthy US developer, situated on a spectacular natural coastal dune system that is subject to numerous environmental protections.

Now, almost 16 years to the day after it approved Donald Trump’s contentious plans for his inaugural Scottish golf resort, the Scottish Government is to hold a series of crucial hearings that will determine whether a major new links course gets the go ahead.

Those behind the vision for Coul Links argue it will utilise just a tiny proportion of a beautiful site of special scientific interest between Golspie and Dornoch in eastern Sutherland. The proposal is to create a striking new course that will attract well-heeled golfers from the world over.

But opponents of the development say it would forever alter an ancient Highland wilderness, resulting in “ecological disaster” as a 6,000 year-old landscape is turned into a “manicured golf parkland”.

Coul Links is subject to various environmental protections | Contributed

On Monday, in a former Victorian school building in the one thriving fishing village of Embo by the Dornoch Firth, the Government’s planning and environmental appeals division will hold the first in a series of hearing sessions. Politicians, senior advocates and environmental experts are among those set to attend.

Ultimately, the evidence they give will lead to a decision over whether one of the highest profile new golf developments in Scotland for years is allowed to proceed.

Previous proposals for an 18-hole course, brought forward by the US golf course developer, Mike Keiser, and Todd Warnock, a Chicago-born entrepreneur, were refused permission in 2020. Scottish ministers ruled that while the scheme would have supported economic growth and rural development, the adverse impact on Coul’s wildlife and habitats was too great a price to pay.

The new plans have been brought forward by a firm called Communities for Coul Ltd. If ratified, the course would be built by Mr Keiser, who made his fortune in the greetings card business. Councillors on Highland Council's north planning applications committee voted eight to six in favour of the scheme in December last year.

In its written submissions to Government planners, Communities for Coul say that since the initial planning application, the design of the course had been changed to “avoid the most environmentally valuable areas” of dune heath, with the amount of habitat loss within the SSSI reduced to just 1.5 hectares to create greens and tees.

The course, the firm adds, would be “indelibly associated” with Mr Keiser, regarded as one of the world’s leading golf course developers, whose portfolio of courses includes the renowned Bandon Dunes resort in the US state of Oregon. They argue it would complement the nearby Royal Dornoch championship course and draw in “high-value clientele”.

Meanwhile, the landowner, Edward Abel Smith, has promised that for every £100 of profit the golf course makes, the community will receive £5, with the arrangement delivering an expected six-figure sum each year. He has also pledged the golf course’s board will include a community representative, with a coalition of local businesses supplying goods and services to the resort and the hotel.

Ariane Burgess MSP has criticised the 'totally inappropriate' development. | Desk

In what he described as a personal “pledge” to the people of the Dornoch Firth, he explained: “Having bought Coul Farm in 1957, I fully realise that my family are relative newcomers to the area. Nevertheless, I represent the third generation of my family to own the farm and, as such, I feel a strong affinity with the area and I would very much like to see it develop economically, socially and environmentally.”

Such promises ring hollow, according to those who have claimed the course cannot go ahead at any cost. Not Coul, a local campaign group, has described the latest proposal as “near identical” to the one rejected, and caution that it poses an “even greater risk to Coul’s special eco-system”.

The group said: “From biodiversity loss and economic risk through to access restriction and social dissonance, the stakes are high for our local communities and for everyone who cares about Scotland’s natural heritage.”

NatureScot has objected to the development on the grounds that it will have a significant adverse effect on the protected sand dunes. The RSPB charity has said it too “strongly objects” to the plans, reasoning the application had not shown that it would not adversely impact the integrity of various special protection areas, nor shown that it was “not likely to damage” the Loch Fleet SSE.

RSPB also criticised the “misleading arguments” put forward by the applicant that the development was needed to secure future management of the sites, and that biodiversity enhancement could be “effectively delivered” on the site.

The submissions received by the Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) in recent weeks also include a representation from Ariane Burgess, the Highlands and Islands MSP, who has said the golf course was entirely unsuitable for “one of the last areas of undeveloped, species-rich dune habitat in Scotland”.

She wrote: “This is the second time a plan for a totally inappropriate golf development on this land has been brought forward, the second time local communities and environmental groups have had to fight against multi-millionaire developers, and the second time it has been called in by Government ministers.

“Local residents value and cherish this special and unique landscape, and it’s deeply disappointing that the north area planning committee opted to ignore those concerns, as well as those raised by environmental groups on behalf of the voiceless wildlife that depends on this rare and precious habitat.”