Beckside Golf Club

This fascinating and challenging little course owes much of its appeal to its unusual background.
Some Eighteen years ago, Mike Jackson, who farms the land, became fascinated by golf and after a summer of driving balls up his main cow pasture, he had the idea of creating a nine-hole course on some uneven rough grazing land littered with boulders, gorse bushes and bracken.
A large fishing pond had been created some years earlier by damming a stream, and this feature together with thepronounced character of this hilly land, suggested just where each green could be mown.In turn, this dictated the location of tees and the clearing of the fairways.Over the past five years, the course has matured with a variety of improvements aimed at lengthening the holes, achieving more sight lines between tee and flag, all against the demanding background of planning restraints in a national park.Now, most of the greens retain the natural lie of the land, mown and top-dressed from the original field turf but now of a high standard comparing favourably with other golf courses.
The course stands high in its surrounding landscape, giving views of the Lakeland hills and of Morecambe Bay to the south.
Beckside is a good example of farm diversification by its golf-loving owner - but in this tourist area the acid test of a facility is whether it is supported by local people, rather than just by tourists in the peak season. Beckside Golf Course is well used by the local community, who refer to is as 'Royal Crook'. Its certainly good value.