Plans to create a “world-class” golf development in the north of Scotland are in jeopardy after a leading nature agency has objected.
The course designed for Coul Links near Dornoch, Sutherland, is backed by Mike Keiser, a billionaire US golf developer.
While it has local support, NatureScot said it would cause “significant adverse effects” on one of the last coastal dune habitats of its kind in Scotland.
An earlier proposal was approved by Highland Council but was rejected by Scottish ministers in 2020 for threatening a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The latest proposal claims to be a “low-impact golf course”, with a 90% reduction in the area developed on the Loch Fleet SSSI.
But NatureScot has urged the project to be taken forward using “a much higher proportion of the adjacent agricultural land”.
