Description

David Fraser, 1895 and later additions. Single storey, 3-bay symmetrical golf clubhouse with decorative cast-iron columns and spandrels to veranda and central gable with pair of roundels with cast, female heads. Overlooking golf links to south. Bull-faced red sandstone with ashlar, long and short margins. Bipartite windows to end bays with stone mullion. Columns with fluted base and Corinthian capitals. Entrance door to east elevation and accessed by stone steps. The rear (north) elevation has a 1895 piended-roof outshot to the centre which has been extended to the north and west in the 20th century. Small, flat roof 20th century addition to west elevation.

Replacement glazing. Piended slate roof with clay ridge tiles. Tall square, end stacks with copes and clay cans.

Low rubble boundary walls and pair of gatepiers with chamfered copes.

Statement of Interest

Carnoustie Ladies' Golf Clubhouse is a rare and early example of a purpose-built ladies' golf clubhouse in Scotland. The building has good architectural details, particularly the veranda with highly decorative Corinthian columns and spandrels as well the cast heads set in roundels to the gable and the building retains its symmetrical design including its chimneys and uninterrupted roofline. Carnoustie has a long association with the game of golf and the clubhouse overlooks Carnoustie Links and this is of contextual interest to the building.

Purpose-built ladies golf clubhouses of the 19th century that are still in use are extremely rare, with only a handful of known examples, such as Machrihanish Ladies' Golf Clubhouse (1893-96) and The Ladies' Golf Club at Royal Troon Clubhouse (1897).

Inaugurated in 1873, Carnoustie Ladies Golf Club, is understood to be the oldest Ladies' Golf Club (with a separate golf course from the men) in Scotland. The ladies played over an 18 hole course which stretched westwards from the Lochty Burn. This watercourse flows through the centre of Carnoustie, reaching the shore some 700m east of the clubhouse, which suggests that the original course lay a short distance southeast or east of the clubhouse. The ladies' clubhouse was designed by the local architect David Fraser and officially opened on 24 August 1895.

Carnoustie has a long association with the game of golf. A club was formed here in 1839 and Allan Robertson came from St Andrews to lay out the first ten holes in 1848. Old Tom Morris, extended the course to 18 holes in 1867. In 1926 James Braid redesigned all the courses extensively and at this time the short ladies' course was abandoned in favour of the new Ladies' tees which had been built on the Carnoustie links. Many golf clubhouses, hotels and other golf related buildings are located on Links Parade, included Simpson Golf Shop (see separate listings).

Scotland is the birthplace of the modern game of golf played over 18 holes. The 'Articles and Laws in Playing Golf', a set of rules whose principles still underpin the game's current regulations, were penned in 1744 by the Company of Gentlemen Golfers (now The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers). Accompanying the development of the sport during the second half of the 19th century, architects sought to give form to a new building type, the clubhouse or 'nineteenth hole'. Improved transport links and increased affluence and leisure time saw growth in the popularity of the sport, with a notable peak in the early 1900s.

David Fraser (or Frazer) appears to have practised in Dundee initially in the 1880s before becoming architect of the Panmure Estates in 1888. In the 1890s he practised independently from Carnoustie, although he may have retained some connection with the Panmure Estates. He predominantly designed domestic buildings but his work also includes Bruce Court in Carnoustie, a hotel which has been converted into housing.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q77782528 Q77782531

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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