The Coaltown of Burnturk Putting Club has been running since 1925 and over the many years of friendly weekly competitions and social events has evolved into much more than a sporting club. It is the social focus of the community during the summer months and everyone from toddlers to the elderly come to the evening meetings. However, the putting green is only accessible on foot, being 250m from the nearest road along a narrow path. The path had deteriorated to such an extent that the very young and the elderly could no longer reach the club.
In 2001-02 the Putting Club received a grant from Scottish Natural Heritage and through the local village hall committee, a grant from Fife Environment Trust, to upgrade and improve the access path to the putting green.
This project was undertaken by contractors but during the work, there were increasing problems of erosion caused by the burn running into the adjacent old quarry, which had become a pond. It was decided to enlarge the project to stabilise the banks of the burn beside the path, and to improve fencing of the old quarry for safety reasons, particularly for young people. It was also agreed to tidy up the pond site of old dumped rubbish and to plant some native trees around it.
The Community Environmental Renewal Grant successfully applied for allowed this work to be undertaken.
50m of new fencing has been installed on the east side of the pond by contractors and 100m of old roadside fencing has been repaired on the north west side of the pond. Around 80 native trees were planted and a further 80 trees were set aside for planting in autumn 2003 to augment the earlier planting.
The access path to the putting green from both Coaltown of Burnturk and Kettlehill has been improved to a much higher standard than it has ever been and the most impressive piece of work has been the traditionally woven willow work to stablise the banking of the burn. This has received a great number of favourable comments and is to all intents and purposes "a work of art". The group would be very happy for other groups to visit the site and see how this work has been achieved by local willow worker, John Kyle.
The pond was included in the Spring rubbish clean-up by the local community although not all the heavy waste was removed. However, it was agreed that it will also be included in the Autumn clean-up and in subsequent twice yearly clean-ups.
The path has been successfully completed and in summer 2003 the weekly meetings were attended by local people aged from 3 to 83. The grant also allowed the purchase of a robust mower to keep the vegetation cut back on the path. This was done on a rota basis by volunteers. An unexpected bonus of the project was the interest generated by the willow weaving work.
The fencing of the old quarry pond has also been completed as planned and now the land owner seems likely to complete the fencing on the other sides of the pond which are not so open to public access.
Contact
Coaltown of Burnturk Putting Club
"Prosen"
Coaltown of Burnturk
Cupar
Fife
KY15 7TR
Telephone: 01337 830366
Email: prosen@ukf.net