Golf at Turnberry was a secret treasured only by locals until railway companies began to develop Scotland’s magnificent landscape into attractions that would lure travellers to the countryside and require a ride on their trains. The dream of escaping the bustling city for the high life inspired day-trippers, week-long boarders and families to visit seaside resorts all over England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and so the South-Western Railway built its line from Ayr to Girvan, and to the Station Hotel at Turnberry.

On 17 May 1906, the resort opened, offering luxury rarely seen on such a scale at the time. With its electric lighting, central heating, hot and cold running water, and saltwater plunge baths, the Station Hotel offered a rare glimpse into a whole new way of living. Designed by a talented young architect, James Miller, the hotel at Turnberry was necessarily grand, but intentionally unostentatious. The classic combination of white plasterwork and red pan tile roof is still part of the iconography of Turnberry today. Inside, opulent appointments were specified throughout, and little expense was spared. Service was of an equally high standard, with teams of maids, butlers, cleaners, cooks, liverymen and boilermen comfortably outnumbering the guests.

Though the hotel has been dramatically modernised, guests at Turnberry today still stay in the same graceful building that early 20th-century travellers did, and are attended to with the same pleasing service.

“The building is beautifully situated on the breast of a hill overlooking the golf links and commanding uninterrupted views of the Firth of Clyde.”

—Scottish journalist covering opening day in 1906

• Turnberry's Tale