Conservation & Ecology


Lying beneath the imposing Gwyrch Castle is Abergele Golf Club, which recently won a national environmental award, and has protected myriad animals, including some feisty little dormice. Jake Barrow headed to Colwyn Bay to meet Master Greenkeeper Darren Anderson to find out more about his conservation work


T


he ‘Outstanding Environmental Project of the Year 2018’ award was collected by 42‐year‐old Darren Anderson, the Master Greenkeeper at Abergele Golf Club,


as part of the BTME Golf Awards 2018 presentation ceremony in January. The club accepted its award alongside such prestigious 2018 winners as Carnoustie Golf Links, Kingsdown Golf Club and John O’Gaunt Golf Club, with its ‘Tir Gwyllt’, which is Welsh for ‘Wild Land’, and was the name suggested by Darren’s bilingual wife Sali. Darren told the Rhyl Journal that he would visit Portugal this April to learn more about ecology in golf course management, because of his involvement in the award: “Firstly, it was about us building an ecology area. The awards obviously encouraged us, and we were still entering even though we thought we didn’t have a chance.”


"I felt immensely proud when it was announced we’d won. I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to say, apart from ‘thank you’ to everyone.”


“The whole idea was that we wanted to improve our environmental standing and encourage ecology with the resources we had really, as we didn’t have money to spend.”


"When we found out we had made it to the final, we were over the moon, and the


club directors automatically said they were going along to support the awards. However, when I saw the fantastic work the other finalist had done, I warned the directors, ‘please don’t get your hopes up.’” A spokesman for Abergele Golf Club then told the Journal: “It goes without saying that we are extremely lucky to have Darren. The work he has put in to enter for this award and continues to do to maintain these standards makes Abergele a golf course to be proud of.”


The project included the incorporation of several nature conservation tools at the side of the third fairway, beside a field immediately adjacent to the castle. It includes a bug hotel, a ladybird basket full of pinecones, a floral area in which local and wild orchids now grow, corrugated steel sheets to encourage slowworms, a selection of bird and bat boxes, eco‐stacks for beetles and other little arthropods, a manmade beehive, wetland areas and a butterfly fruit table.


It also, perhaps most uniquely, features tree boxes and tennis ball houses in which dormice can nest. These are spread over some distance, for terrotorial reasons. A club member, Peter Warren, is also a member of the Conwy Bee Association, and agreed to set up and maintain the beehive voluntarily, as a hobbyist.


PC APRIL/MAY 2018 I 123


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