{"id":284567,"date":"2026-02-06T21:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/284567\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:28:08","slug":"chunk-of-pitch-and-putt-course-swept-away-by-wild-weather-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/284567\/","title":{"rendered":"Chunk of pitch and putt course swept away by wild weather \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThat\u2019s land we will never get back,\u201d says Mark Fay, chairman of the Laytown Pitch and Putt Club, which was once again battered by wet and wild <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/weather-ireland\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/weather-ireland\/\">weather<\/a> this week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fay says it is \u201cheartbreaking\u201d to watch the Co <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/meath\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/meath\/\">Meath<\/a> amenity gradually succumb to the effects of coastal erosion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI\u2019d say in the last two winters, we have lost over four meters of land, one and a half meters of which was taken by the sea on Thursday.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Club members are in the process of starting a fundraising campaign to construct measures, including replacement fencing, to safeguard the more than 50-year-old course from further damage and land loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe will probably have to move at least one tee box because when you stand on it, you are looking right down into the sea. The next wave and it\u2019s gone,\u201d Fay adds.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Laytown Pitch and Putt Club in Co Meath has been repeatedly damaged by coastal erosion\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SBRYUDPFLFDNTEHGFTDGUAK5PI.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"493\"\/>Laytown Pitch and Putt Club in Co Meath has been repeatedly damaged by coastal erosion <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/environment\/2026\/02\/05\/why-is-it-so-wet-ireland-is-collateral-damage-in-the-battleground-between-weather-systems\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Why is it raining so much? Persistent rain in Ireland driven by an unusual combination of eventsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe are lucky that we have room to shuffle things about. The tide went around the greens which have held up well but there are holes now between them that we need to address.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The club, spread over two hectares of coastline, has 108 members, a further 40 associate members and an additional 60 or so green fee visitors each week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fay estimates that about 30 metres of land has been lost to the effects of coastal erosion since 2012.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhen you look out to sea and see the lifebuoys, that is where the course used to be,\u201d he says. \u201cThe members have spent about \u20ac54,000 on the course in the last two years and we are due to hold our first national title here later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fay adds: \u201cI\u2019m just sickened by it all. It\u2019s just a constant battle and it\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/environment\/2026\/02\/06\/live-weather-updates-rain-warnings\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Transport disruption in parts as Met \u00c9ireann weather warnings expire across StateOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat\u2019s land we will never get back,\u201d says Mark Fay, chairman of the Laytown Pitch and Putt Club,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,15949,43,18335,15950],"class_list":["post-284567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meath","tag-news","tag-weather-events","tag-weather-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}