Founded in 1922, Bothwell Castle Golf Club enlisted a Glasgow architect by the name of Mr. Adams to lay out the club’s original 18-hole course within the Bothwell Estate, to the east of the 13th century castle ruins, and this new layout was officially opened the following year by the Earl of Home, father of Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas Home.
In the late 1960s, the club lost seven of the holes on the course (from the old 9th to the 15th) to a private housing development and another architect, a Mr. F T Lyon, was commissioned to set out the replacement holes. After much deliberation over a variety of different issues, the remodeled course came into play in 1973.
Bothwell Castle’s clubhouse was lost to a fire in 2002 and it was rebuilt and relocated to a more central position, resulting in a resequencing of the holes. In 2014, a number of substantial course improvements were carried out on the back nine, involving the installation of new bunkers and open drainage ditches.
Today, the course measures 6,224 yards from the back markers, with par set at 70. It’s laid out on relatively level terrain, with tree-lined fairways providing a quality parkland game of golf for members and visitors alike. The signature hole is regarded as the 159-yard 8th, where an intimidating little burn runs across the front of a sand-protected green.
