longniddry golf club
Mary Queen of Scots was known to be playing golf in the area of Longniddry in
1567 – ‘over the fields of Seton’ – shortly after the murder of Darnley and was
admonished accordingly! It was another two hundred years, however, before the
7th Earl of Wemyss and March bought land at Gosford ‘to be nearer the golf’ and
a further one hundred and fifty years before the 11th Earl of Wemyss invited
Harry S. Colt to design and build 18 holes for Longniddry Golf Club. 150 acres
were made available and thousands of trees were cleared to create a course
measuring some 6,369 yards. Some of the felling occurred in (what was) the
Boglehill Wood, thought to be a site of worship for local witches and warlocks
and now the site of the 6th and 10th greens.