Page added: Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Ramside Estates Ltd has begun work on a £15m leisure development including a new 18-hole golf course, spa, leisure centre, hotel expansion and residential housing project.

Work will start this month on the construction of the new golf course on former agricultural land near Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club, a 27-hole golf resort and four star hotel on the outskirts of Durham City. Ramside Hall Estates director, John Adamson, said: “We are pressing ahead with plans to give County Durham a first-class golf resort that it can be proud of. Ramside is already considered among the finest golf destinations in the North of England and by expanding the hotel and creating a new course we are polishing our golfing diamond.”

The development is set to create more than 100 new jobs and generate an additional £11m of spend in the Durham visitor economy annually. Ramside Estates Ltd currently employs 550 people and visitors to Ramside Hall Hotel bring around £2.67m into the North East economy per year.

The new championship golf course will be more than 7,200 yards in length and is the only new golf development planned for completion in England at the present time. Adamson, added: “When we developed the original Ramside golf course we built 15 manmade water features and worked with over 50,000 planted trees. The result was an outstanding championship golf course distinct from any other in the county. This new course will be bigger, better, longer and even more exciting to play for members and visiting golfers.”

Golf Course Architect Jonathan Gaunt of Gaunt Golf Design built the original 27 holes at Ramside Hall which opened in 1996, and will revamp four of the existing Cathedral Course holes, retire five existing holes, and add 14 new holes on the former farm land near Belmont and Pittington.                                                                                  
The hotel expansion will begin late in 2012 with 48 new bedrooms set to be built increasing the hotel’s bed stock to 130 rooms. The leisure centre will feature a gymnasium, 25-metre swimming pool, hydrotherapy pool, cardio cycling studio, spa with 12 treatment rooms, a hairdressing salon, restaurant and cafe.
The development also includes 34 executive houses in secluded and picturesque locations bordering the golf course.

The golf course and leisure complex is expected to be completed by September 2013, when Ramside Estates Ltd celebrates its 50th anniversary as a business.