Portsalon Golf Club Centenary 1891-1991
Portsalon Golf Club was founded in 1891 by Colonel B.J Barton on his land after Captain Kenneth McLaren had identified the suitability of the land for golf. Mr Henry Chichester Hart J.P. was the club’s honorary secretary, a naturalist with experience of polar expeditions. The club was established alongside the Portsalon Hotel (a converted shooting lodge) and quickly gained a reputation as one of the best links courses. Portsalon was one of the nine founder members of the Golfing Union of Ireland, the oldest golf union in the world. Access to the course involved a train journey from Derry to Fahan and onwards by steamer (Lough Swilly Steamboat Company’s twice weekly sailings) to up through Lough Swilly to Portsalon.
Colonel Barton was considering a move to Germany until his sister Kate suggested converting the shooting lodge into tea rooms to create extra income and given the success and a spell in Switzerland studying hotel management saw her convert it to a hotel which was opened in 1889. Colonel Barton applied for a liquor licence much to the chagrin of the local publican who put it down to “that bloody orange majority”. By 1901 more beds were added as the attractions in the area were, apart from the golf, plentiful, including Three Mouth Cave, Seven Arches or Drumnacraig Hill was a must for the sporting anglers and the strands for bathers. Wolfe Tone was captured in Lough Swilly where later a self-inflicted would from a penknife avoided the fate that would await his court martial in Dublin. The hotel continued to flourish with Kate picking up ideas from London Society and the walled garden maintain by Isabel was also an attraction and by 1920 has 100 rooms. In tourism was waning when the Costello Hotel Group took it over in 1967 and it again changed hands in 1971 and the eventual demise was when a fire engulfed the hotel on 3 August 1991 and resulted in it being condemned and demolished within a few days.
The course was originally designed by Charles Thompson, the professional at Portrush and Mr R. A Collingwood from the same club. In 2000, renowned architect Pat Ruddy undertook a major redesign of the course, lengthening it and adding nine new holes. It is known for its stunning location along the sandy shores of Ballymastocker Bay and the views of Lough Swilly (“Lake of Shadows”). A significant moment in the club’s history was in 1986, when the club purchased the land on which the course is built. This was after a monumental fundraising campaign and negotiations with Mr. P.C. Duffy, who offered the club first refusal on the lands. The new clubhouse was officially opened in 1991 the previous clubhouse was originally the Gate Lodge to the hotel.
The club has hosted several prestigious tournaments, including the Irish Ladies Championship (1905, 1912, 2005) and the Irish Mid-Amateur Open Championships in 2023. The 1905 Championship saw May Hezlet beat her sister Forence by 2&1. Their most notable home ground player was Brian O’Brien a medical student attending Trinity College Dublin who, although a member of Lahinch entered as Portsalon, won the South of Ireland Championship in 1896 with an 9&7 win over D.M. Wilson.
