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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday, 8 August 2026. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all!
☀️ The weekend’s weather: Today starts dry but gets wet - very wet in Glasgow, less so for Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness, but still wet. Tomorrow is going to continue wet in the lowlands, but more dry in the north. London will bake throughout. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
The golf battle that encapsulates a very Scottish economic conundrum | Spot the AI | A critical Odyssey | The immortal jellyfish | Ultra-lux flying | Italian farmhouse vs a flat in Edinburgh
🍸 Do we need another golf course on the north east coast of Scotland? The saga of Coul Links has rumbled on for years, a classic environmentalists-versus-golf-course-developers battle that has introduced us to the beauty of a remote corner of our country that few have ever seen, and to complex and emotive questions about how it should be put to use, if it is to be put to use at all.
As a decision on a new golf course on the shores of the North Sea looms, Bloomberg is the latest global media brand to put its formidable reporting resources to the story. And we can assume that a reasonable slice of its wealthy audience would quite fancy a round at Coul should development there get the green light.
The chances of that hang in the balance. The project has already been rejected once, and another “no” would probably finish it for good. And, of course, this isn’t really just about a golf course: it’s about economic development, and what sort is appropriate - and desired - in Scotland.
Backers say the project would preserve rather than damage the area’s ecology (getting rid of invasive species, for instance), create 400 sustainable jobs and boost a region which - as Bloomberg points out - is one of many here that are in population decline.
Opponents say it would be sacrilegious to develop part of a site of special scientific interest: one noted as a diverse and special ecosystem in this strikingly beautiful part of the world. To develop it would be to permanently destroy what makes it special.
It’s a political headache too: the SNP Government may feel it can’t win here. Approve the plan and the appeal will go all the way to the Supreme Court. Dismiss the plan and they’ll stand accused of undermining the economy of a rural part of Scotland. (Bloomberg)
From September 2025: “A decision on Coul Links will be issued as soon as possible” (The Northern Times)
From May 2026: Scottish Ministers “set to refuse” controversial golf course plan (Herald)
This would-be golf course sits on dream linksland. Inside the fight to build it (Golf.com)
* This item was amended to reflect that the proposed course is on the north east, coast, not the north west, as it had earlier - inexplicably - placed it.
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Can you spot the AI text?
Critics and academics go head to head over Odyssey
Meet an immortal jellyfish |
The ultra-lux flying niche that makes first class look ordinary
Your pick: an Italian farmhouse or a flat in Edinburgh, for about the same price
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend.
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