A chara, – Philip Reid mourns the abandonment of Turvey golf course in Donabate and its reclamation by "ugly overgrowth" and "wild hawthorn bushes" ("Out of bounds – The death of an Irish golf course", Online Edition, February 1st). I, for one, will be celebrating this small respite for nature. Following the demise of Turvey golf club and the associate course management regime, nature has re-established a foothold. Indeed, the Dublin Naturalist Field Club reported buzzards, sparrow hawks, cuckoos, pygmy shrews, badgers and a range of shieldbugs, ladybirds, moths and caterpillars, not long after management cessation.
Philip Reid can take comfort in the fact that there are two other golf courses in Donabate, also courses in Skerries and Swords, three in Portmarnock, another in Sutton and two in Howth, not to mention two more on Bull Island.
Many of these courses are built on top of sand-dune systems that once supported intact ecosystems, including a wide variety of annex habitats now listed as protected under the EU habitats directive. Personally, I would like to see the dissolution of some more golf courses and their return to a more natural state, with associated ecosystem services, increased biodiversity and the potential of real recreational land for the greater public. – Is mise,
R Ó BRIAIN,
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Dublin 7.