Coul Links (golf or not)

Coul Links lies just to the north of Dornoch on the east coast of Sutherland in Scotland. It is an area of dynamic coastal sand dunes, with internationally important wetland features, bordered to the east by Embo beach and the North Sea and to the north by the mouth of Loch Fleet. Immediately to the west lies improved farmland and to the south the village of Embo. The centre of the links is positioned at approximately 57.9°N, 4°W, grid ref. NH814939. The land forms part of Coul Farm. It is proposed that a golf course will be built on Coul Links. The Highland Council Impact Assessment form accompanying the initial planning submission states that "The proposed development has the potential to affect nature conservation interests on and around the site that are designated as being of international and national importance (Ramsar, Special Protection Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest). In addition, there are recorded archaeological remains and the archaeological potential of the site is high". The site is a hive of biodiversity, home to over 1,400 species.

Drone's-eye fly-overs of the recent (shot in March 2024) erosion of the the dune edge at Coul that the developers have declared to be stable is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAdSvRQ2iTw and the Winter flooding still extensive in March 2024 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTItJyEzbtk The Coul golfing season looks to be starting late this year. Drone video of the southern section of Coul Links with views towards the northern section that show the dune slacks in their Winter flooded condition can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13nh1l5LTCk and dry in early September at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-hjFAyc_IE

After The Highland Council approved the planning application for a golf course at Coul Links, against the advice of its planning officer and of SNH (now NatureScot), the case was called in by Scottish ministers. A Public Inquiry was held in February/March 2019.

ttps://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=119883

The inquiry reported to ministers in November 2019. On 21 February 2020 a decision was announced, “The Scottish Government has considered the reporter’s findings carefully and agree with the recommendation that planning permission should be refused.” “The likely detriment to natural heritage is not outweighed by the socio-economic benefits of the proposal.”

The Scottish ministers' reasoning suggests that a golf course routing at Coul Farm more sympathetic to the ecosystems of the dunes and respectful of their protection classifications could have met with little objection.

June 2022 saw a very similar scheme to the original entering the planning process. That application was validated in February 2023. The groundhog is not one of the species that make Coul Links worthy of environmental protection. At considerable time and taxpayer expense, a Public Inquiry confirmed that Coul Links is a site of national importance. The revived golf course proposal is being justified on the grounds of local (East Sutherland) economic benefit. That benefit would to a significant extent be gained at the expense of other golf tourism destinations within Scotland.

Details of the current planning application can be found at  http://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/  reference 23/00580/FUL.

The report to councillors from the Highland Council Area Planning Manager North recommending refusal of the planning application can be found at Item 6.2 at https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4894/north_planning_applications_committee

February 2024 - The Scottish Government has called in the Coul Links golf course application and the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) has appointed Reporters to examine the case and advise Ministers. Details can be found at https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?ID=124499 case number NA-270-010.

coullinksgolf.com

This website aims to collect and provide links to items appearing on the internet that concern Coul Links and the proposal to site a golf course on that dune land. There is little editorial input beyond the brief description above, the choice and tone of "News Flashes" and the now extensive timeline below (and in the news archive) and our efficiency, or otherwise, in locating and correctly labelling relevant links. (A number of the links provided have become obsolete as interested parties have become inactive in the months/years since Scottish Ministers refused planning permission for the first proposed golf course at Coul Links.)

We hope that this website can serve to help people make an informed decision on support for or opposition to a golf course on Coul Links. The golf course plan has, regrettably but understandably, created deep divisions in local opinion with a quantity of questionable rhetoric reported in the local press, ("Cars and cats kill more birds than golfers." councillor McGillivray, The Press & Journal 13th November 2017). During the progress of the first planning application, the planning submission, consultee responses and public comment on The Highland Council planning website very possibly constituted a more reliable source of facts than did the media coverage listed in the lower part of this page. Along with media links, at the foot of this page we will seek to include any information that we can source, be it press releases or data, published by the developers or their agents.

When older news updates (now in the news archive page) sometimes read as being critical, it was no more than simple frustration with the demise of communication with the public from the original would-be developers and their failure to submit documents within the deadlines set by the Public Inquiry. We also admit to a growing frustration with the re-emergence of the discredited first proposal dressed up as fresh thinking and we recognise that some of the News Flash items reveal exasperation with the conduct of the planning saga.

coullinksgolf.com had intended to remain active to report on outcomes for Coul Links such as a management agreement and prospects for the recovery of the Northern Brown Argus butterfly presence after the fire of late March 2020. It will now remain active to monitor the progress of the second golf course planning proposal.

For links to media coverage of the Coul Links saga, scroll to lower on this page.

News and commentary

NEWS FLASH - 11 July 2025 - On 10th July, the DPEA delivered a procedure notice to the parties involved in the inquiry inviting further written submissions to be received by 24th July. The reason for the re-opening of the inquiry for submissions is a change in Scottish Government policy on Ramsar sites in Scotland, one of which includes Coul Links. ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/updated-scottish-government-policy-protecting-ramsar-sites/pages/1/ )

"The Minister for Public Finance and Chief Planner wrote to local authorities and stakeholders on 9 July with an update on policy protections for features on Ramsar sites in Scotland. The purpose of this updated policy is to state that the Scottish Government considers that listed Ramsar sites in Scotland should be treated as if they were European sites for the purposes of land use change decision making."

14 days are open for submissions and then a further 14 days for comment on the submissions of other parties.

The National (10th July) reported that the updated policy "steps up protections, including by mandating a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) for any developments affecting Ramsar sites". NatureScot is quoted as saying that an HRA "must show beyond a reasonable scientific doubt" that a development "will not adversely affect the integrity" of a Ramsar site if the project is to be allowed. No HRA was submitted to the inquiry.

Applicant C4C claims that "sustainable and properly funded measures to enhance the habitat at the site have always been central to our application" (The National, 10 July). With the original Scottish MInisters refusal having recognised significant negative impacts on nature, C4C's failure to undertake recent on-site research to provide evidence for their claims of environmental enhancement delivered by their revised application, makes the new threshold of beyond reasonable scientific doubt look like a big ask.

NEWS FLASH - 26 June 2025 - On 20th June, Communities for Coul (C4C), in a rare communication with those communities, updated its website with news that it has been advised by the DPEA that the Reporters are "prioritising" the completion of their report prior to submission to Scottish Ministers. C4C states that "the earliest that Ministers will likely consider the report will be September". The "advice" to C4C has yet to be published on the DPEA website.

NEWS FLASH - 8 May 2025 - Royal Dornoch Golf Club has announced plans to build a third golf course and to modify its second course. Further pressure on the visitor income that sustains neighbouring golf clubs and a dent in the economic case used to justify the Coul Links golf development. However, it is perhaps more than a coincidence that the chosen designers have undertaken projects for Cabot. In the press release, parroted by the golf press (Bunkered, Golf Digest, Golf Business News, all 8 May), Royal Dornoch's general manager makes a point of categorising both the Royal Dornoch development and Coul Links as "good news".

NEWS FLASH - 15 April 2025 - The DPEA writes to the appicant's agent stating that the Reporters "envisage" their report being submitted to Ministers in May.

NEWS FLASH - 11 March 2025 - In DPEA correspondence dated 10 March, case officer Rebecca Davidson states that the Reporters report "has not been sent to Scottish Ministers yet. Currently the reporters are aiming for April, as soon as this is sent, I'll update all main parties".

COMMENT - 10 February 2025 - A DPEA update on 31 January states that "The report and recommendations are being finalised and will be submitted to Scottish Ministers as soon as possible". Now would be the moment for the developers to end the rancour, exhibit some environmental sensitivity and get a golf course with wow factor built, by withdrawing the current application and submitting a genuinely creative proposal for a course layout on the upper slopes of Coul Farm.

NEWS FLASH - 16 January 2025 - The Applicant's closing submissions, dated 15 January, have been delivered by its agent Ness planning in a 67 page document and a 17 page summary availabale at https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?ID=124499    

"C4C is a most unusual applicant'  (para.4): Destined to dissolve and hand over the reins to the landowner and the developer but not representing the interests of the landowner or the developer and funded by donations from sources undisclosed. Formed by self-appointed directors, C4C is a not-for-profit limited company, but it is a stretch to see it as the "community applicant" mentioned in para.6(c).

The submissions can be read as having a dispiritingly Trumpian vibe - ours are the facts because we say they are; while opposing expert opinion/evidence is wrong, its authors compromised or insufficiently qualified. So much emphasis on dismantling the credibility of opponents perhaps betrays an awareness of the weakness of the C4C arguments. Para.205's unequivocal statement that "this proposal is of national importance" disappears  under the moving sands of page after page establishing that any potential benefits can only be of local rather than national importance.

C4C has chosen to break a long Facebook silence with a reminder to Scottish ministers that doubles down on local importance. It appears that they can't quite convince themselves that their national importance case is convincing.

Perhaps Scottish ministers will play politics with this application but those who would like to see a golf course on Coul Links might feel more confident if some arguments that would both nod at satisfying the national Planning Framework and find maybe a single national benefit angle had been presented. In these closing submissions they get neither.

NEWS FLASH - 7 December 2024 - The deadline for closing submissions to the Inquiry has been extended. All parties (except The Highland Council and the applicant): 13 December. The Highland Council: 20 December. Applicant 10 January.

INQUIRY TAKE-AWAY - 14 November 2024 - Matters of concern to the local community Session

The final evening session brought a welcome dose of sincerity to the public hearing but also a nagging frustration for those in favour of the current golf course application and those who would like to see golf at Coul. Communities4Coul needed to establish that a golf course at Coul Links would deliver economic benefits of national significance. Their experts and a raft of contributors to the local community session have succeeded only in describing possible economic benefits of national importance to the breakaway Golfing Republic of East Sutherland.

INQUIRY TAKE-AWAYS - 14 November 2024 - Socio economic Session

1. A day when opinion and surmise were somewhow allowed to be given equal weight with the scientific rigour of the ecological arguments of days 1-3.

2. Professor Bell for the applicant deems that the socio-economic impact of building Scotland's five hundred and eighty something golf course is of national importance as it solidifies Scotland's reputation for golf.

3. Did it not cross the mind of Mr Stewart, a director of the applicant Communities4Coul, to recuse himself from presenting evidence on behalf of Brora Golf Club? Did it not cross the mind of Mrs Knox, a director of Communities4Coul, to recuse herself from giving evidence on behalf of Dornoch BID?

NEWS FLASH - 13 November 2024 - On Facebook, Communities4Coul are light on the mundane stuff of explaining their Inquiry case and strong on casting their "heroic" team as David taking on Goliath. Did David start the war and did the little guy have the support of billionaire golf developers? For C4C, history is unclear on these questions. 

INQUIRY TAKE-AWAYS - 13 November 2024

1. A third day of opposition experts, this time the conservation coalition, finding shortcomings in the applicant's attitude to survey work. Scottish Ministers, in assessing the merits of the original application, decided that, in terms of surveying invertebrates, more could have been done. Learning the lesson, this time the applicant has commissioned no invertabrate surveys. Relying on old data is described by the applicant's ecoloy expert as "just unfortunate". It does rather invite the cynic to conclude that if you don't want to find, don't look.

2. By monopolising large chunks of Inquiry time, individual species, ringed plover on Tuesday, Fonseca's seed fly on Wednesday, are wilfully ignoring the applicant's ecology expert's frequently stated view that individual species are insignificant features.

3. Coul Links is the 4th most important UK site for lichens; and the smallest of those top 4. With a score of 37, Coul Links surpasses the threshold of 20 needed for notification as a SSSI on the grounds of lichen interest. No UK golf course, managed for nature or not, achieves the threshold score.

INQUIRY TAKE-AWAY - 12 November 2024 - Mr Haspall, for the applicant, claims that the construction stage for the golf course will take "3 months tops"; Ideally taking place after the bird nesting season and aiming to get seed into the ground before winter. No mention of club house, carparks, access road, reservoir, or any other infrastructure in, or adjacent to the SSI.

INQUIRY TAKE-AWAYS - 11 November 2024 - A few observations on the C4C arguments in support of a golf course at Coul Links:
1. It is not justifiable (even for a billionaire developer it seems) to fund the 4 or 5 weeks of expert's time needed to produce a comprehensive survey of the plant life present at Coul Links. Perhaps no point in locating too many species when you are going to "restore" the whole site.
2. Individual species are seemingly "insignificant features". The "ecological function" is what matters.
3. Mowing heather, and everything else, down to 10-15mm high is "habitat modification" not "habitat loss".
4. Well-heeled golfers will be "interested" to play on fairways characterised by flowers and flies. It might be imagined that they will be less enamoured of sprained wrists when their club heads connect with fairway heather roots.

NEWS FLASH - 8 November 2024 - The public hearing starts on Monday. Webcasts of all sessions will be accessible at 

NEWS FLASH - 8 November - Via Facebook, planning applicant Communities for Coul is kind enough to remind us that the Coul Links golf course proposal is "effectively an ambitious dune restoration project, funded and enabled by a light-touch golf course"! So admirable priorities like that have allowed Mr Keiser to make money out of golf resorts - who knew?

NEWS FLASH - 26 October 2024 - With the public hearing sessions starting in just over two weeks, the Communities for Coul website provides very little information on the hearing or on what will be discussed. In stark contrast, the website published by opposition group NotCoul contains a wealth of detailed information https://notcoul.org/inquiry-2024/. It seems that those protesting the current golf course plan are keen that the public/"communities", are fully informed: While those fronting for the would-be developers are appearing considerably less enthusiastic about sharing information.

NEWS FLASH - 10 October 2024 - The Scottish Government Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) will tomorrow publish, in The Edinburgh Gazette and The Northern Times, a notice of public hearing session. The hearing session wil start at 10.00 on 11 November at Embo Community Centre and will run for 5 days. The proceedings can be followed via webcast at http://dpea.public-i.tv/core/portal/home

All documents relating to the planning application can be viewed at Dornoch Library and at the Highland Council offices HQ in Inverness.

NEWS FLASH - 14 August 2024 - The Scottish Government Planning and Environmental Appeals Division has published agendas for the Ecology and Tourism and Socio-Economics Hearing sessions - available at https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?ID=124499

NEWS FLASH - 1 June 2024 - The Commuities for Coul Facebook storyline doubles down on positioning Coul Links golf development as a solution to Highland depopulation. "If Coul Links is built, it will create up to 400 good jobs for young people with which they can support growing families - and provide some decent housing too." They fail to explain how a seasonal golf course (with the length of the season dictated by when the winter flooding subsides) creates "good jobs" that can sustain year-round mortgage payments and attract 400, or any, young families to the area. If Coul Links golf course is to be built, it needs to be justified by facts not fantasy.

NEWS FLASH - 21 May 2024 - The Reporters have circulated a note of the Pre-Examination Meeting of 13 May. The note lists "all the arrangements that were discussed and agreed" at the meeting including the decision not to hold any inquiry sessions so cross-examination is excluded from the process. The applicant was certainly content with hearing sessions and this route was the preference of the Highland Council, so perhaps the video link to the meeting dropped out for the few moments when all parties agreed that an inquiry was unnecessary. (The note can be found via the link in the news flash of 15 May.)

NEWS FLASH - 15 May 2024 - Monday's Pre-Examination Meeting https://dpea.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/879063 saw the DPEA Reporters proposing that written submissions would suffice to inform them on many of the matters relating to the Coul Links golf development. In this they were supported by counsel to the applicant who went further in suggesting that policy, economic and ecological issues could also be adequately assessed without oral evidence or discussion.

Hopefully guided by nothing other than cost and time considerations, the Reporters indicated that they were "leaning towards" a "hybrid super hearing approach" to avoid the additional time involved in the cross-examination sessions of an Inquiry. Counsel reported that proceedings longer than a week would be "of concern" to the applicant. While counsel for the Conservation Coalition pointed out that examination of the ecology arguments alone had taken two weeks at the last Inquiry, the Reporters outlined that they envisage ecology taking three days of a hearing, tourism and economy one day, policy half a day. Coastal erosion will not warrant oral evidence or discussion and hydrology will be subsumed into ecology sessions.

The Reporters' proposal of an August hearing was inconvenient for the applicant. A provisional date of the week starting 11 November was agreed, with the Reporters to conduct an unaccompanied site visit prior to the hearing.

COMMENT - 15 May 2024 - Nature, ecology, environment? No, what appears to matter here is cost and not disrupting the applicants' holiday plans (Mr Keiser can console himself that C4C "chose" him, he didn't commission them).

If convenience, time and money are the prime considerations, let's confine investigation to written submissions as favoured by the applicant. As no conceivable national economic benefit is credibly advanced in their golf proposal, and as it is fatuous to suggest that a Ramsar site will be ecologically enhanced by carving a golf course through it (with no mitigation offered elsewhere), the golf application can be summarily dismissed by Scottish Ministers.

Perhaps the opportunity to hear and examine evidence should be embraced rather than restricted. The time, energy, passion and expertise that has been expended is surely indicative of the truth that the future of Coul Links is worth public investment in establishing a way forward – again.

NEWS FLASH - 11 May 2024 - The pre-examination meeting (virtual) to discuss the practical arrangements for the inquiry is scheduled for 11am on Monday 13 May.

NEWS FLASH - 20 March 2024 - DPEA has announced that the reporters have reviewed available documentation and "have decided that hearing or inquiry sessions are likely to be required to assist in writing their report". Administration arrangements will be discussed at a virtual pre-examination meeting currently scheduled for 11am on Monday 13 May.

COMMENT - 2 March 2024 - A remarkable drone video of Coul Links posted on Facebook by Not Coul yesterday https://www.facebook.com/groups/266150027087512/. Although the golf course is planned to be closed at this time of year, it is hard to see how a viable course could be created when so much of the links is prone to this degree of Winter flooding. Moving a small mountain of sand might do it. Mowing the existing vegetation, and reducing its diversity in the process, as C4C and Mr Keiser currently propose would seem futile. World-class golf (in a world-class wetland) shows ambition but surely the reality is, as the recent accelerated erosion of Golspie and Fortrose & Rosemarkie golf courses has highlighted, that if East Sutherland needs another golf course that course needs to be sited on land a few metres higher than, and further from, the waves, tides and water-table of the dunes at Coul.

NEWS FLASH - 26 February 2024 - The Scottish Government Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) has listed the Reporters who will handle the Coul Links case as Mr David Buylla and Mr Stuart West.

Meanwhile some hints of interesting communication with Scottish Ministers is revealed on the DPEA website. On 9 December Communities for Coul were on a freedom of information fishing trip for correspondence between MSP Ariane Burgess and Not Coul. On 18 December Councillor McGillivray was wishing the Minister for Energy and the Environment happy Christmas and reminding her that an "intriguing" election year was imminent.

COMMENT - 25 February 2024 - Having missed the Nigg golf course opportunity and with Coul Links at best 3 years away, Cabot Highland (Castle Stuart), with its second course as yet unplayable, looks isolated; a hard sell while it remains the only piece in the Keiser Highland Coast golf destination. So some pragmatism and welcome humility is apparent in Cabot's February online marketing https://cabotmagazine.com/9/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=293778648&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-821o-twRtHgD2i6gPahJxPGLh0Nys__Q3Bzzso9CiE-o4J0X7FFaihJ5DEKNwZJlEaTPLIuDn_GrPUXgagS9Q-5oZS2w&utm_content=293764541&utm_source=hs_email .

A year ago Cabot Highlands' General Manager was enthusing that Cabot's "control" of where visiting golfers  played, stayed, ate and drank would be "masterful" (see News Archive 20 March 2023). Now Cabot is obliged to tell a more diplomatic story, extolling the charms of historic golf at Tain and Golspie and even suggesting that golfers might like to spend the night in Dornoch. For now the Keiser camp needs supporting golf attractions to draw golfers away from other Scottish golf destinations and there seems to be belated realisation that their own Coul Links narrative is based on creating employment in the very localised East Sutherland area. Mr Keiser and Cabot need to acquire some more Highland golf real estate to save them from having to be considerate of local, long-established golf interests or to think about getting their stories in sync.

NEWS FLASH - 23 February 2024 - The published photograph of the throng that answered Communities for Coul's call to gather at Coul Links in support of their golf course plan, suggests that 27 adults (including C4C directors and a Dragonfly Promotions photographer) and 4 children could find the time to attend. The Northern Times deemed this mass display of support worthy of front page coverage.

NEWS FLASH - 9 February 2024 - The Scottish Government has called in the Coul Links golf course application. Ministers "have given this Direction in view of the proposed development's potential impact on nationally and internationally important natural heritage assets and the need for an appropriate understanding of the scale and degree of potential economic benefits arising from the proposal". A Reporter will now be assigned. Details can be found at https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?ID=124499 case number NA-270-10.

NEWS FLASH - 30 January 2024 - On 29 January The Highland Council informed Scottish Ministers that statutory consultee NatureScot has maintained its objection to the Coul Links golf course proposal. Ministers have until 27 February to call-in the planning application or to accept The Highland Council North Planning Applications Committee's seemingly perverse assessment that the golf course proposal will deliver national (not just local) economic benefit and comply with the National Planning Framework.

NEWS FLASH - 7 December 2023 - At First Minister's Questions, MSP Ariane Burgess asked Humza Yousaf "Will the First Minister confirm that the decision (to approve the golf course at Coul Links) will now be called in to Ministers and reaffirm the Scottish Government's commitment to respecting all international treaty obligations, including the Ramsar convention?". The First Minister acknowledged the "utmost importance" of the impact planning applications could have on nature and natural environment but declined to comment on a live application. 

NEWS FLASH - 7 December 2023 - A range of reactions to the planning approval emerging, from C4C's "absolutely delighted", to MSP Araine Burgess' "shocked" and Iolo Williams' "@HighlandCouncil you are an absolute bloody disgrace!!!! Are you blind & deaf to the biodiversity crisis?!".

NEWS FLASH - 6 December 2023 - MSP Ariane Burgess tells The Northern Times that she will be "calling on the Scottish Government to reconsider" the Coul decision "and to uphold Scotland's planning policies and the wishes of the local community".

NEWS FLASH - 6 December 2023 - Highland Council planning committee approves the Coul Links golf course application on an 8 to 6 vote. 8 and 6 is an outstanding win in any golf match but, as in the first round back in 2018, it can be applauded as a steady par on the first for Mr Keiser.

However, it is perhaps difficult to see developer Mr Keiser viewing the 8:6 majority his current team has won as an improvement on the 15:1 majority achieved last time around (and that didn't turn out so well). But the vote can be seen as heartening proof that 6 members of the planning committee have recognised the environmental and biodiversity priorities emphasised in National Planning Framework 4 and are willing to see further than parish pump politics. 

The Northern Times quotes an "absolutely delighted" Communities for Coul who claim their plans "provide a guaranteed future for the wonderful, wild coastal environment of Coul Links". While The National reports the reaction from RSPB Scotland's North Scotland area manager, "It's really regrettable the proposals are now at this stage given how clearly it's been shown that Coul links is not the place for this kind of development. We're urging Ministers to call in the development to ensure that Coul Links is safeguarded for nature and people into the future rather than being irreparably harmed". (Scroll down for links to media coverage of story.)

NEWS FLASH - 5 December 2023 - The Northern Times confirms recent rumours "A wealthy American businessman has made a shock bid to take over Golspie Golf Club". The NT article describes "an 80-year old who has made his fortune through his ownership of food manufacturing companies" and "a member of the Royal Dornoch Golf Club and Skibo Golf Club" (sic - The Carnegie Club). Comments in the Northern Times Facebook post suggest the interest comes from Joe Masterson.

NEWS FLASH - 4 December 2023 - The Communities for Coul Facebook campaign today reminds councillors that they are answerable to their electorate and sees a "good chance" that the planning committee will be unconvinced by the expertise of their planning officers and by the expertise of NatureScot. And C4C has good reason to be confident. It's a brave and enlightened councillor who gives weight to national considerations when local foghorns such as these blare in their ear.

However, planning officers are obliged to take a more holistic approach. Just as NaureScot's objection is informed by the national (and international) designations and protections afforded to Coul Links, so Highland Council planning officers must consider not simply local issues but also the emphases placed on the environment and biodiversity within National Planning Framework 4. The relevance of these national guidelines was highlighted in the objection submitted by The Highland Council Ecology Officer (6 May) who unequivocally stated, "We also object to the proposal as it is contrary to National Planning Framework 4 Policy".

It's difficult not to feel sympathetic towards planning committee members. Last time around they were unaware of what became clear only after the time and expense of a Public Inquiry; the economic case could not trump the inevitable environmental damage. This time we know a lot more about both the local and the national importance of Coul Links in terms of habitats, species and amenity; and we hear a no-more-convincing economic case. C4C's confidence appears to take councillors somewhat for granted.

NEWS FLASH - 1 December 2023 - Rumours are emerging of American interest in buying Golspie Golf Club (sited between Coul Links and Golspie). The Club has called an EGM for 7 December.

NEWS FLASH - 1 December 2023 - The owner of Coul Links has bought a full page advertisement in The Northern Times print edition in which he presents a list of pledges he will personally deliver if the golf course plan comes to fruition. Amongst these are a fully-funded SSSI management plan and the employment of a Coul Ecology Officer. He reassures us that he will remain the owner of Coul Links but neglects to mention that it is under his family's ownership that the management plan was not renewed and the deterioration in the condition of the dunes has taken place.  

NEWS FLASH - 30 November 2023 - Rumoured to have been doing his best work in the Inverness corridors of power, twice-bitten, never shy Coul Links golf cheerleader Councillor McGillivray is feeling sufficiently confident to submit copy to The Press & Journal. In an opinion piece parroting Communities for Coul messaging, he emphasises the poor state of the economy, "there is no public money", perhaps hinting that he believes the Scottish Government will have no financial appetite for a second Public Inquiry. 

NEWS FLASH - 30 November 2023 - On its Facebook page on 29 November, Communities for Coul declared "Coul Links is one of very many Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in trouble. Experts estimate it will cost approx. £500k over a 3-5 year period to properly restore it. THE GOLF COURSE DEVELOPERS HAVE COMMITTED TO SPENDING THIS MONEY" (Their caps.) When does this committed spend start? Is this ring-fenced environmental restoration spend? Or is it spend on golf course construction as somehow environmentally restorative? Can golfers and non-golfers alike please hold the developers to account on this commitment?

 NEWS FLASH - 29 November 2023 - See Item 6.2 at https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4894/north_planning_applications_committee for the Highland Council Area Planning Manager North's report to committee recommending refusal of Communities for Coul's golf course planning application.

NEWS FLASH - 27 November 2023 - After more than three and a half months of zero information, the Communities for Coul Facebook page springs to life to appeal directly to Highland councillors for their support. However, it's a risk to assume that councillors can't tell fact from fiction. "The development will create up to 400 much-needed jobs for young people" - not even their own economic experts predict 400 jobs for young people. The development will "help stem our depopulation crisis" - The Highland Council website states that the population of the Highland Council Area increased by 13.9% between 2001 and 2021. The rare dune system will be rescued from "the invasive species currently threatening to overwhelm it" - their environmental experts don't suggest that the dune system is about to be overwhelmed. Deal in facts and the golf course application will stand or fall on its merits. Treat the public and their representatives as fools, and you deserve to fail.

NEWS FLASH - 27 November 2023 - The Northern Times reports that "Highland Council planning officials are recommending that the controversial application for a championship golf course at Coul Links be refused".

NEWS FLASH - 24 November 2023 - Perhaps what's been quiet in the Coul debate has been a voice that resonates with the experience of being there - a place that is simply good for the soul. Whether or not you want to see golf at Coul, it may be timely that NotCoul has released a video about the essence and life-enhancing qualities of Coul Links. The heartfelt wonder expressed by the contributing experts contrasts sharply with the monetise-or-dereliction narrative delivered elsewhere by the planning applicant's hired-gun expertise. See the video at  https://youtu.be/Bnm7krCGoGQ

NEWS FLASH - 24 November 2023 - The Communities for Coul company has written to Highland councillors in advance of the North Planning Applications Committee meeting of 6 December at which the Coul golf course application will be considered. The "primary concern" is to invalidate the objection submitted by NatureScot, though space is given to questioning the expertise of organisations such as the RSPB and to some dog-whistle localism. The company states that "all the information given and assertions made are factual".

Unfortunately, by the second paragraph the letter may have taken some liberties with "factual" with what is by now the persistent description of the application as being "community-led".

The application would appear to be "community-led" only in as much that, without a mandate provided by any local population, 5 individuals have set up a company, included the word "communities" in its name and positioned themselves, via their company, as actors for the community. Which community is unclear but it seems to be one with a consensus to closely align itself with the commercial interests of the developer whose application for a golf course at Coul Links was found to be unconvincing, and inevitably damaging, by a Public Inquiry and by Scottish Ministers.

Can it be "factual" to suggest that a planning application is community-led when that community is made up of the 5 directors of the applicant company? If the Communities for Coul company is content to be so woolly about what "community-led" might mean, how can any other of the information and assertions it presents be confidently accepted as "factual"? Scrupulous clarity should be a prerequisite of the stewardship of a site as diverse and precious as Coul Links.

NEWS FLASH - 1 November 2023 - The Coul Links golf development is slated to appear on the agenda of the next Highland Council North Planning Applications Committee meeting scheduled for 6 December. 

NEWS FLASH - 29 September 2023 - The Highland Council has published notices in The Edinburgh Gazette (22 September) and The Northern Times (28 September) announcing that the agents acting for Communities for Coul have submitted additional information in support of the Coul Links golf course planning application. This opens another 28 day window (from publication date) for public representations and comments.

NEWS FLASH - 02 September 2023 - The Northern Times, usually an unquestioning reporter of attempts to build a golf course on the protected land at Coul Links, has picked up on an article published in The Ferret on 27 August that reveals a "direct link" between Communities for Coul and the US developers behind the discredited first application to build on Coul Links. Finally some light of publicity being shone on the blindingly obvious.

NEWS FLASH - 30 August 2023 - The Northern Times reports that the Coul Links golf application will not be considered at the September North Planning Application Committee meeting and will now be examined at the 1 November meeting.

NEWS FLASH - 10 August 2023 - On its Facebook news page, Communities for Coul has returned to the story that only a golf course sited in natural sand dunes beside the sea at Coul Links can be commercially viable. A golf course on the slopes of Coul Farm, overlooking the dunes and the sea, would not attract the necessary number of visitors.

Texas has a golf industry worth $1.7billion and 907 golf courses (travelmag.com). golf.com ranks Trinity Forest the number one golf course in Texas - it has hosted PGA tour events. Trinity Forest is not sited on sand dunes, of which Texas has many. It is laid out over an almost flat former landfill site. Coul Links designers Coore and Crenshaw designed Trinity Forest.

Testament to the abilities of Coore and Crenshaw. And stretching credibility for C4C to imlpy that they need nature to do the design work for them to create a commercially viable course at Coul Farm.

NEWS FLASH - 4 August 2023 - With their Coul Links golf course application likely to be considered at September's meeting of the Highland Council North Area Planning Committee, Communities for Coul is making a concerted effort to discredit NatureScot, its methodology and its objection to the planning application. (See Links to local press towards the foot of this page.)

NEWS FLASH - 31 July 2023 - Some mixed messaging from the Mike Keiser camp.

Golf Digest (25 July) reports that Cabot Highland has broken ground on their new Tom Doak designed golf course adjacent to the now re-named Castle Stuart course. The site is largely gently sloping farmland - "The golf features at the new course will need to be imagined and constructed, like those at Castle Stuart were". (Golf Digest ranks Castle Stuart the 72nd best golf course in the world.) "Cabot Highlands and the Doak Course adds another magnetic force that should not just attract players to the north of Scotland, but also keep them there longer".

Meanwhile, the Observer/Guardian (30 July) reports Coul Links planning applicant Communities for Coul doggedly repeating the line that Coul Links "can't be just another golf course. It has to be a world-class golf course ... on genuine links land right next to the sea, following the natural contours, not some artificial obstacles created on flat farmland".

Cabot will no doubt be thrilled to hear their new project dismissed as sub-standard - "just another golf course". The Highland Council Planning Committee might take note that a commercially viable golf course could be imagined and constructed on non-environmentally-valuable land at Coul Farm. 

NEWS FLASH - 1 June 2023 - The Coul Links golf course application is not listed for consideration in the published agenda of the Highland Council North Planning Applications Committee meeting on 7 June.  https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4805/north_planning_applications_committee/attachment/81676 The next meeting is scheduled for 9 August. 

NEWS FLASH - 17 May 2023 - The Highland Council Planning website has published the Consultation Response from The Highland Council Ecology Officer (dated 16 May). "We object to the proposed development due to insufficient current ecological information to allow a robust assessment of the ecological resources of the site and associated impacts." And: "We also object to the proposal as it is contrary to National Planning Framework 4 Policy 3b that states 'Development proposals for national or major development, or for development that requires an Environmental Impact assessment will only be supported where it can be demonstrated that the proposal will conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity, including nature networks so they are in a demonstrably better state than without intervention'".

NEWS FLASH - 12 May 2023 - The week finishes with 1,045 public comments published on the Highland Council Planning website - 726 objections, 311 support comments. 70% against the current golf course plan, 30% in favour.

NEWS FLASH - 10 May 2023 - The previous admirable positivity of the Communities4Coul Facebook messaging seems to have lost discipline as their story has lurched to a focus on the objectors. As they loudly announce, objectors NotCoul have distributed a news-sheet to homes in Dornoch, Embo, Brora and Golspie. And, unhelpfully for the golf project, as the C4C tone becomes more confrontational, the first planning application's more toxic and discredited support has resurfaced.

NEWS FLASH - 5 May 2023 - NatureScot comment published on Highland Council planning website. "We therefore object to this proposal as it will result in unavoidable adverse effects on natural heritage interests of national importance." "If the planning authority intends to grant planning permission against this advice, you must notify Scottish Ministers."

So the Highland councillors on the North Planning Applications Committee will have to decide whether they yet again burden taxpayers with the expense of kicking this can down the road to Scottish Ministers.

Coul Links golf course current proposal

Also see News Archive. The company fronting the proposal has an online presence at  https://www.communities4coul.scot and https://www.facebook.com/Communities4Coul/ For an alternative reading visit https://notcoul.org and https://www.facebook.com/groups/266150027087512/?mibextid=HsNCOg

After a local councillor made a shambolic attempt to resurrect the original golf course scheme, with added par 3 course, in Autumn 2020, a more concerted effort to relaunch the project surfaced in January 2021 with the publication of https://www.communities4coul.scot. Communities for Coul, a private limited company registered in Scotland, suggests that Brexit and Covid have changed the economic climate to such an extent that the benefits will outweigh any environmental concerns and further that the new golf course proposal “is now an environmental project with a golf course at its heart".

A week later the owner of Coul Farm announced his intention to build a hotel overlooking the links – construction to be started when the golf course receives planning approval.

In April 2021, Communities for Coul announced that Mike Keiser, the developer behind the original golf course plan, had been “selected” to build the revived golf course, funding the project should planning consent be granted.

Communities for Coul proceeded to stage a postal ballot and series of tightly managed online question and answer sessions to establish a narrative of consultation and public support. Meanwhile The Scottish Government’s Dynamic Coast project mapped areas of coastal flooding where the golf course is to be routed and forecast that the dune edge would retreat inland by up to 93 metres this century. Meanwhile Foveran Links in Aberdeenshire, home to Trump International Scotland golf course, of which Donald Trump said “this will be environmentally better after it is built than it is before”, lost its Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status due to irreparable damage - extravagant promises of local jobs have never materialised. Parallels will inevitably be drawn.

Having declared that the original layout was the only one available at Coul Farm for a “world-class” golf course, Coore and Crenshaw have made modifications to their routing to make small concessions to specific environmental concerns and adopted the mowing of existing vegetation to create fairways. 

A scoping application was submitted to The Highland Council in March 2022 with the aim to “file a planning application in 2022 and start work on the project in 2023”. Communities for Coul appealed for £150,000 of crowdfunding to meet the costs of expert support (a target reportedly reached on 26 September 2022). A Proposal of Planning Application Notice (PAN) was submitted on 19 June 2022.

Also in June, Cabot, a company associated with Mike Keiser, acquired Castle Stuart golf course near Inverness, renaming it Cabot Highlands and announcing plans for a second course and accommodation on site. Communities for Coul published the opinion that its chosen developer’s plans for Cabot Highlands would have “a significant negative economic impact on the towns and villages of the Dornoch Firth” so Coul Links, from the same developer, was needed as a counterbalance to prevent “very bad news”.

The aim to submit a planning application for Coul Links in 2022 was not met. However, with Cabot Highlands, Mike Keiser has put the first piece in place for a new Highland golf coast destination - as the Cabot Highlands' website https://cabothighlands.com depicts it, "Cabot's first UK property in its diverse collection of world-class golf and master-planned communities". Communities for Coul, a limited company perhaps misleadingly referred to in press coverage as a "community group', announced on 9 February 2023 that a planning application for Coul Links has been submitted. The deadline for public comments on the application is 12 May 2023.

There are two online petitions to "Save Coul Links". One is still live from the first planning application and currently has attracted more than 93,900 signatures https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/conserve-coul-links-for-nature-not-golf-1  The second is specific to the new planning application  and has already gained more than 24,800 signatures towards its 25,000 target https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-coul-links-protected-nature-from-destructive-deja-vu-golf-course-1