Lochend golf members rally to save their clubhouse

February 28, 2025 8:50 am

365

A venerable Edinburgh golf club has been saved – six months after it was acknowledged to be in a “survival battle.”

Members and friends of the Lochend club, who play on the council owned Craigentinny course, have raised the best part of £40,000 for urgent repairs to the clubhouse roof which threatened its existence.

Captain Stuart Mathie, who still has 12 months of his four year term to serve, is a relieved man, saying:

“At last I can sleep at night again!

“Also, I can cross the threshold of the club without somebody pouncing to sell me a raffle ticket or football bingo card!

“Seriously, it has been a magnificent effort all round and we have raised enough to do both parts of planned repairs above the function room and locker room without having to go back to members.”

It was last September that The Edinburgh Reporter revealed what Mathie described then as dark days – especially with winter approaching.

However, a £100 levy on the 230 strong membership broke the back of the fund-raising effort and a grant from their brewery suppliers also was of major assistance.

But the golf community inside and outside of the Lochend club certainly rallied particularly local member Stuart Turner.

Mathie says: “Stuart is MD of Kilgour Wealth Management who have a corporate season ticket for four people at Manchester United.

“In a silent auction that ticket, which included hospitality, raised a four figure sum while former Duddingston GC professional Alastair McLean put up a round on the Gullane No 1 course for three people plus himself to offer coaching on the way round. That was another big earner.

“But a well wisher who donated a box of two dozen golf balls for a raffle prize was typical of the goodwill we also experienced.”

Now the club are planning a major celebratory function before the golf season begins in earnest on April 1 at a course with connections to the mid 1700s when golfers played nearby at Leith Links and later migrated across.

Of course having clubhouse facilities are all very well but the playing area needs to be in good condition.

“We are so fortunate to have excellent Edinburgh Leisure green-keeping staff taking a real interest in the golf course” says Mathie, adding “and the Woodland Trust have planted 200 trees to enhance the appearance of the course still further.”