THE HISTORIC clubhouse of one of the world's oldest golf clubs which was devastated by fire can be saved - but it will take two years to be restored to its former glory.
Three quarters of the 19th century headquarters of the Glasgow Golf Club, the ninth oldest in the world, was gutted by the blaze on Thursday night.
It has now been revealed that staff braved the fire before it took hold to help salvage most of the Bearsden-based club's 'priceless' artefacts including one of the six original Calamity Jane putters as used by golf legend Bobby Jones.
Also rescued was the Tennant Cup, the trophy awarded for what is understood to be the oldest amateur golf strokeplay event in the world - having been competed for since its creation in 1880.
The captain of the golf club David Sifton told of his“absolute devastation” over the blaze that destroyed the majority of the B-Listed clubhouse in Bearsden.
The club has been closed since the fire devastated the building, but managers believe they can at least get the course open on Wednesday.
Basic temporary accommodation including toilets and changing rooms should be in place by the end of the week.
But getting the Georgian neoclassical Killermont mansion house back as it was will take far longer.
Chris Spencer, the club's general manager said: "It could take two years, because it is a Grade B listed buidling and as a result Historic Scotland will have quite an input to ensure that its characteristics are maintained or replaced.
"But it can be saved. The insurers have been round and are confident the building can and will be saved.
"We are not talking about demolition, they seemed to be quite content the external walls are safe and secure. "We are covered by insurance, and it is more than adequate to cover the cost of repair and reinstatement.
"The roof is burnt out pretty much but the external walls we believe are still quite sound. It is a typical 18th century build, so it is solid walls.
"The internals will be reinstated and to a standard that was there before. "It is the internal beams and floor supports where they might think there's a problem."
There were two staff in the clubhouse, locking up at the end of the night at around 9.30pm who noticed there was smoke, discovered the fire in the kitchen and then raised the alarm before evacuating.
Then came moves to salvage the club's historic artefacts.
"That putter is now in safe storage. It was one of the first things that was saved along with models and all of our trophies.
"We managed to rescue those before the fire took hold in those areas.
"One of the staff and some of the management who were contacted and some of the council got down and tried to rescue what they could before the fire took hold."
Glasgow Golf Club, the first to open in the west of Scotland was founded in May 1787 and has changed location several times during its history, but has been based at Killermont since May 21, 1904.
Before the blaze
The earliest printed references to Killermont date from around 1580. The house and estate had been owned by the Campbell-Colquhoun family for more than 150 years before being leased by Glasgow Golf Club in the autumn of 1903.
It has been described as “the best listed building in Bearsden, a very handsome late Georgian country house of 1805 with very few external alterations to affect its character.”
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