The course that broke Kilspindie’s heart — a story for another blog.
Value 3/5 (4/5 using GolfNow)
Craigielaw Golf Club is on Wemyss and March Estates land – the same Estate that has leased its land to neighbouring Kilspindie Golf Club since 1867. In 2001, after two years of fractious negotiations, the Estate cancelled a deal that would have allowed Kilspindie to operate a second course and announced they themselves would build and run Craigielaw Golf Club. Kilspindie’s members, who had already paid handsomely for the privilege of playing ‘their’ second course, were left short changed — that story will feature in Kilspindie’s blog.
What elevates this origin story beyond a mere property dispute is who, at the time, was the Countess of Wemyss and March (see picture below). In 1995, James Charteris, 13th Earl of Wemyss, had married Amanda Feilding — an English aristocrat, artist, drug policy reformer, and the world’s most committed advocate of trepanation, the practice of drilling a hole in the skull to enhance consciousness and cerebral blood flow.
In 1970, Amanda had drilled a hole in her own forehead with a dentist’s drill, filmed the entire procedure, and called the resulting short film Heartbeat in the Brain. Audiences at early New York screenings were reportedly seen dropping from their seats. She stood for Parliament twice — in 1979 and 1983 — on the sole platform of free trepanation on the NHS, receiving 40 votes and then 139. She later founded the Beckley Foundation, dedicated to psychedelic research, and lived to see much of that work vindicated by mainstream science before her death in May 2025, aged 82.
So when the Wemyss and March Estates Directors, including Lady Wemyss, decided on the use of the land, it might have been fitting if anyone said “We need to operate a golf course like we need a hole in the head!”.
Back to golf. Designed by Donald Steel, Craigielaw is a thoughtful layout. The hole names are a delight — Coffin Lane, Bellfire Knowe, Doos Wa’s.
The property is well set up — impressive clubhouse, lodge accommodation, excellent practice facilities. The bunkering is Steel at his most unforgiving — cavernous, steep-faced pot bunkers with no interest whatsoever in your handicap.
The turf lacks the crisp links quality of nearby Gullane; the geology feels subtly different, more transitional than pure links. And the housing around the 10th and 11th — Gosford Park, as it happens, whose residents were central to the original dispute — briefly breaks the links illusion. The course recovers, but it’s a lapse.
Value? At £125 for a summer midweek round, the price reflects the postcode — Muirfield, Gullane and Luffness New are all neighbours — more than the course itself. Good golf, honestly designed, but 3 out of 5 at full price? Not sure. However, I paid £45 through GolfNow. A Donald Steel championship links in East Lothian for £45 is 4 out of 5 without hesitation. Check GolfNow before you book.
Facts:
Round £125. Par 71. Course/Slope Rating 70.0/124. Value3/5 (4/5 using GolfNow).
Moly’s Score – 97
