Alston Moor Golf Club

Alston Moor Golf Club, founded in 1905, lies two miles south of the market town of Alston in a 132-acre spread of parkland, high meadow and pasture, and is recognised as England's highest golf course. Its first layout was at Black House Farm, officially opened on Easter Monday 1906, though evidence points to club activity before that date. A dispute over rent with the landowner led to a move to Bayle Hill in 1914, where the course ran to nine holes over 1,670 yards, made up of two par 3s and seven par 4s. The tenancy at Bayle Hill was lost and the club returned to its original ground in 1919, later extending the course to 12 holes as membership grew. The layout was fully restored and officially reopened in 1948 after a period of neglect. Alston itself, in the CA9 postcode area, sits at the meeting of the rivers South Tyne, Nent and Gilderdale on the edge of the North Pennines, and is often described as the highest market town in England, a distinction closely tied to the golf club's own claim to altitude.