Consortium gets go-ahead to build island links

NICK FALDO is a step nearer to achieving his dream of building “the best and most unique links golf course in the world” at Bartragh Island off the Mayo coast.

In the High Court yesterday, Miss Justice Mella Carroll gave permission for a consortium that includes the six times major championship winner to complete the purchase of the 367 acres, five kilometres long island located on the Moy estuary seven miles from Ballina and close to Killala and Enniscrone.

Indeed, Bartragh is clearly visible from the championship course at Enniscrone. It is accessible from the pier at Killala and one can walk across at low tide.

Bartragh was once described as “the last natural God-made golf course in Ireland”, and Faldo immediately shared that view when he first visited the site back in 1997. He nearly bought it at the time and had it extensively surveyed. The island boasts an old manor house which is badly in need of modernisation along with courtyard and stableyard, and an untouched oyster bed.

Where sporting pursuits are concerned, it is also eminently suitable for surfing with experts in this area claiming that the waves on its five kilometres of beach “are second only to Hawaii”.

The Faldo consortium has some distance to travel before their ambition to build a golf links is realised. An environment impact assignment will have to be carried out and after that there is the possibility of an

environment impact statement (EIS). The protection of the flora, fauna and wild life at Bartragh will be central to any such activities.

It is inevitable nowadays for the development of a links course that there will be objections. Doonbeg, further down the Atlantic coast in Co Clare, is a classic case in point. An Taisce are understood to have their reservations about a golf course at Bartragh and were recently slammed for being “so vocal against the development” by the Ballina Chamber of Commerce who also urged the people of North Mayo and West Sligo to “stand up and be counted” on the issue.

“I was absolutely captivated when I first saw Bartragh in 1997”, said Faldo. “It is the most magical and most extraordinary property I have ever seen. It has the potential to develop into a really exceptional links course, perhaps the best and most unique in the world.”

Some of Faldo’s golf course design work has achieved widespread acclaim. The Palmerston Resort in Berlin, Chart Hills in Surrey, the Faldo Stadium course in Shenzhen, China, along with developments at Palm Beach, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, stand as testaments to his ability as an architect as do venues as far apart as the Philippines and North America, Vietnam and Germany, where he currently has projects under construction.

But he makes no secret of his desire to be associated with a world-class links and is delighted that yesterday’s decision in Dublin has brought the realisation of his dream a step nearer.