Photo story
STONEHAVEN’S Recreation Grounds are looking even sadder than usual today with the putting green, lower bowling green, MUGA and petanque court all under water and filling higher and higher with each overtopping wave.
Grounds owned on the community’s behalf by trustees
Three clubs make their home there – tennis, indoor bowling and bowling.
Public money has poured into the Recreation Grounds in recent years, including £400,000 from Aberdeenshire Council’s 2022 participatory budgeting exercise.
This afternoon, water was flowing through a doorway into the basement of the Grounds’ pavilion, which was fully restored in 2021 courtesy of a £92,069 award from Historic Environment Scotland. A committee member drinking in the bar, who does not wish to be named, refused to attempt any action with sandbags. Let’s hope the listed building is not too badly damaged.
More happily, the inflatable arena appears protected by a line of sand bags and unaffected by the encroaching seas. Tennis lessons were proceding as normal.