Please note that we do not provide buggies or trolleys.
Test your game on a golf course that transports you back almost 100 years in time to an era when golf was a game of skill, strategy and technique rather than one driven by innovation and technology.
Transcript
I'm Dave Allan. I look after the golf course here at Kingarrock. I've worked for the National Trust for Scotland for the last six years.
The golf course here at Hill of Tarvit was set up by the family that stayed here at the time in the early 1900s. The head of the family was a gentleman called Frederick Sharp. His son was Hugh, and they were both fanatical golfers. They were members of the R&A -- the Royal & Ancient golf club at St Andrews. But it wasn't good enough for them to be only 15 minutes from St Andrews, they had to have their own golf course.
Opened in 1924, it was very successful. The golf course died during the Second World War, when it was taken over by the Ministry of Agriculture, and it was eventually reopened to the public in 2008, as a hickory-only golf course using hickory clubs and set up as a hickory course.
It's the only one of its kind in the whole of Europe. They're playing with clubs that are anything from the 1880s through to the 1930s, so they're playing with the real, genuine articles. It's a full nine-hole course with a par 5 included. It's a par 34, and we've had numerous tour professionals here and that par has never been broken. It's been levelled, but it's never been broken.
So, if anyone is of a high standard and wants to have a go at that course record, please feel free to come along and enjoy yourselves. If you succeed, your name will go up inside the cottage. And if you don't succeed, you'll still get your ginger beer and shortbread when you finish!
It's a great challenge to play and it's a great day out.
Booking
It’s easy to step back in time and book a round or two at Kingarrock. Book a tee time online or by emailing your requested date and preferred tee time to kingarrock@nts.org.uk.
The course is open 7 days a week during the season. The first tee time is at 10am and our tee times are 30 minutes apart to allow our guests to enjoy a unique and unhurried golf experience. For early or late tee times, please email kingarrock@nts.org.uk.
Book your tee time
Book todayGreen fees
From £75pp (9 holes)
From £90pp (18 holes)
All prices include everything you need to enjoy a great day at Kingarrock, including a set of authentic hickory clubs in a lightweight bag, tees, balls and a scorecard. Our knowledgeable staff will provide an entertaining introduction and some tips and pointers before your game. Afterwards, a warm welcome awaits you back at Golf Cottage, with refreshing ginger beer and Scottish shortbread.
Groups
Kingarrock Hickory Golf is the perfect experience for a celebration with a difference, team-building or just a good old-fashioned day out. Corporate and celebratory hospitality packages are available. To find out more, contact us at kingarrock@nts.org.uk.
Concessions
Selected concessions and occasional special offers are available.
PGA/BIGGA Members: £30
Concessions must be booked in advance and may require proof of eligibility. Please email kingarrock@nts.org.uk or call 01334 653421.
About the course
The original design and layout of the course have been tweaked slightly, bringing it in line with modern safety needs. The old course had several holes which crossed each other, which made many a player holler ‘fore’ and dodge flying balls! What makes Kingarrock truly special is the unique environment we’ve created, using a combination of historically inspired groundsmanship with a few modern touches, and sheep grazing among the rough.
Greens and collars are hand-cut, while fairways and tees are carefully mowed using 1920s-style trailed gangs. No fertilisers or artificial irrigation are used anywhere on the course, which provides a more natural, less manicured (and therefore more authentic) feel than most other courses.
Ecology of the course
We have an impressive level of biodiversity, with wildflowers including marsh orchid, lady’s bedstraw, cuckooflower and ox-eye daisy spreading across the course and attracting high numbers of bumblebees.
The tussocky grasses draw field voles and tawny owls, while the gorse on the course attracts yellowhammers sheltering from swooping sparrowhawks. You’ll also spot many tree sparrows, who nest in some of the tree boxes we’ve provided.
We’ve also started planting trees, such as sessile oak, pedunculate oak, European beech, horse chestnut, copper beech and sweet chestnut, some of which have not been present here for a century.
Transcript
One speaker: Owen Browne, Greenkeeper
I'm Owen Browne. I'm the greenkeeper here at Kingarrock Hickory Golf Course at Hill of Tarvit.
This is Harley, the head greenkeeper, and together we look after the golf course.
Kingarrock is a 1920s nine-hole, hickory-only golf course.
It is maintained using 1920s practices and principles, so there's no irrigation or chemicals used anywhere on the course. We rely on what falls from above to irrigate all the areas, so it's very sustainable.
We rely on three methods to maintain our roughs.
Firstly, we have the semi-parasitic yellow rattle plant.
We also have 30 sheep, which arrive on the course each September for grazing throughout the winter, and then we follow that up with cutting and collecting, which removes any of the remaining material that the sheep haven't eaten.
As the grasslands have thinned and the wildflowers have increased, so has the number of insects, creating a really good food source for any birdlife.
We've got about 30 bird boxes around the course, and they're placed on the mature trees.
We're trying to attract tree sparrows. They're a Red-listed species, so they've undergone considerable decline, mainly due to loss of habitat.
We've had really good success this year -- we've recorded over 50 young chicks who've been using the boxes.
As the greens are cut at 8mm, they have quite good density, but as we don't have any herbicides, we still need to control weeds. So, that's done by hand.
The golf course is a designed landscape, so we're very conscious that we don't want to plant too many trees.
Everywhere there's a mature tree, we will plant a young tree next to it.
We're planting for the next generation.
Another facet of our tree management is that we generally leave fallen trees where they land.
After we've made them safe, they're then left as wildlife habitats.
Around the course, we have a number of log piles which are constructed from storm-damaged limbs. These are used by bugs as a refuge during the winter months.
Part of our sustainability policy is to reuse and recycle as much as possible, and we've been fortunate to receive some old erosion control fencing from the St Andrews links.
We've used the fencing as tree guards to protect our young trees from the grazing sheep.
I think the golfers appreciate the fact they can find their golf balls in the thinned roughs.
I think the wildlife appreciates the fact that they've got a home now where they didn't have before, and really that's the purpose of sustainable greenkeeping.
Course plan and holes
Today’s course has a number of features to put your skills to the test, including three bunkers of varying depths and a water feature – the cundy (or small stream) on hole 7.
1. Ha-ha
Slightly uphill and often into the prevailing westerly wind, the opening shot is important if you’re going to have a line into the green for your second. Aim just to the right of the oak left of centre in the fairway. Be careful not to go through the green as the ditch in front of the ha-ha is deep.
2. Stand sure
Straightforward, longish par 3. Don’t take too much club or you could go over the drystone dyke behind the green.
3. Kingarroch
Taking its name from the Kingarroch Inn at the bottom of the valley, this is the only ‘blind’ shot on the course. Wait for the bell if there are players in front of you. This is a short par 4 that requires accuracy off the tee and punishes a slice or hook. Play within yourself. Anywhere on the fairway and the green is easily within reach for your second.
4. Copse
The shortest hole on the course. Don’t overshoot or you could easily become entangled in the trees at the back of the hole.
5. Wemyss
The longest hole on the course and sometimes a birdie opportunity if you get the line right and don’t try to cut the corner. The two 1920s-style inland bunkers are clear to see in front of the green. Getting over them is important, but beware the long rough beyond.
6. Monument
Hit your drive left of centre to have a safe approach for your second shot. The cundy lies in wait to catch any ball in the light rough either left or right of the fairway at the lowest point of the hole.
7. Cundy
Judging distance is everything. Too short and you’re in the cundy or the bunker. Too long and you’re in the deep grass on the bank behind. Is it a full niblick or mashie niblick, or do you go down the shaft on a mid-mashie? Good luck.
8. Doocot
If your tee shot doesn’t go the distance to see the flag on this dogleg left, don’t risk going over the trees. Play up short and hope to chip and putt for your par. If you’re not going to chip in, leave your ball below the hole as there’s more slope to deal with than on any other green.
9. Sharp
A wonderful hole to finish your round with, well chosen by Frederick and Hugh Sharp all those years ago. Do you play safe and take a mid-mashie for the centre of the fairway or select the spoon and go for the green? It all depends on the condition of your match!
The Kingarrock golfing experience
A typical day
A day at Kingarrock should please any keen golfer, but you get much more than a game of golf – you get an authentic slice of Edwardian life.
Your day starts with a warm welcome in Forester’s Cottage from the golf team. They’ll introduce you to the quirks and charms of the 1920s kit and give you some fascinating history, about both the history of the game and the Sharp family. After that, it’s time to collect your clubs and head out to the first tee. A 9-hole round takes roughly 90–120 minutes to complete. For maximum privacy on the course, and to fully experience the game exactly as the Sharps did when they had the course to themselves, we do our utmost to ensure each golfing party gets a half-hour gap on the first tee.
After you’ve made your final putt, you’ll return to the Forester’s Cottage where we reward your efforts with another fine Fife tradition: a cool, refreshing glass of ginger beer and a plate of shortbread.
There’s no dress code, but you’re welcome to don your plus fours and look sharp on the course!
Please note that dogs are not permitted on the golf course, although they are welcome on the rest of the estate.
Non-golfers are more than welcome to accompany their golfing counterparts on the course in this sublime stretch of Fife countryside.
Tools of the game
Back when the Sharp family designed the original course at Kingarrock, golf was all about choosing your clubs carefully, making the shot with skill and using your imagination. We’re rekindling the original spirit of the sport, with all the excitement and challenges players enjoyed a century ago.
Hickory clubs were state-of-the-art in the Edwardian era. Wooden clubs had been used for years, but hickory wood was first imported from America during the 1860s. They remained popular until the late 1930s, when steel gradually began to replace them. At first they may feel a little more delicate than today’s sophisticated, technology-driven titanium and graphite clubs, but they’re reassuringly sturdy and light enough to carry comfortably.
You’ll get issued with five original 1900s hickory clubs: a spoon, a driving iron, a mid-mashie, a mashie niblick and a putter. With expert guidance from our team, fully versed in the ways of Edwardian golf, you’ll have everything you need to pick your shot with perfect poise. If you’re already a hickory golf enthusiast, you’re welcome to bring along and play with your own heritage clubs.
Now let’s talk balls. Golf balls came a long way during the 19th century, starting with the original, much-prized Featherie balls, stuffed with goose or chicken feathers. They were superseded in the mid-1800s by the Gutta Percha, which was made from rubber processed from Malayan gum trees and far more economical to produce.
In 1898, things were ratcheted up a notch with the introduction of rubber-wound balls, mass-produced in America by the Haskell Company. By 1921 the Royal & Ancient Golf Club’s Rules Committee standardised things, stipulating that ‘The weight of the ball shall be not greater than 1.62 ounces and the size not less than 1.62 inches in diameter.’ Today, we play with replicas of these 1920s balls.
Last, but by no means least, comes the Reddy Tee, first patented by American dentist William Lowell in 1924. The wooden, red-painted Reddy Tee soon took off and set the benchmark. It seems astonishing that this initiative took so long to develop, especially as for centuries golfers were forced to improvise and tee off from little mounds of sand made with their hands!
If you’re a seasoned golfer you’ll certainly appreciate the difference these historically authentic tools bring to your game. You’ll notice that the ball travels a shorter distance and the clubs generally benefit from a less aggressive swing than you may be used to. Of course, this all makes for a more leisurely game, but we’re sure you’ll get into the swing of things soon enough!
History
Kingarrock is the only remaining hickory golf course in the UK and was first established in 1924. Over the years we have welcomed British and US Open Champions. Now we offer you the unique opportunity to follow in their footsteps and test your own skills on our challenging 9-hole, 2022yd course.
Whether you’re a serious golfer or just fancy trying your hand at a fun, authentic sport from bygone days, we’re confident you’ll enjoy swinging back in time, whatever your handicap.
Kingarrock’s golf heritage stretches back to 1906 when wealthy jute magnate Frederick Sharp first brought his family across the River Tay to Hill of Tarvit, attracted by its proximity to St Andrews Royal & Ancient Golf Club.
Not content with such easy access, Frederick and his son Hugh soon set about designing a 9-hole golf course on the front lawn. It proved a popular fixture with golfers for many years, until the advent of World War 2 when the course was commandeered for farming use to aid the war effort.
The site’s great golfing heritage was finally revived in the 1990s when Trust staff discovered a 1924 map of the course, along with Frederick Sharp’s golfing bag. Trust members David and Michelle Anderson set about restoring the old course to its former glory, with some improvements to make it suitable for modern players. After a 70-year hiatus, the course finally reopened in June 2008.
Book a tee time online or by emailing your requested date and preferred tee time to kingarrock@nts.org.uk.