The ups and downs of ridge and furrows

Usually spotted in farm fields and pasture land, the distinctive patterns of ridge and furrow features can present special issues for greenkeepers and grounds professionals.

12th approach at Forfar Golf Club.

Harking back to immediate post-Roman times, ridge and furrow farming presented a way to cultivate crops – their parallel contours creating a wavy, corrugated effect across the landscape. Still adopted until the 17th century under the open field system, the distinctive features were created by mediaeval methods of ploughing, when soil was turned inwards and piled up along the edges of individual strips.

Contour dimensions vary for surviving ridges but typically they are between three and 22 yards apart and up to 24 inches high; however, they were far taller when in use but annual non-reversible ploughing on the same strip of land gradually lowered them.

Ridges helped drain the fields, critical in wet regions, also serving conveniently as ready-made boundaries for plots belonging to different farmers.

Prominent examples include pasture land in historic Lowndes (formerly Ledger) Park, Chesham, in the Vale of Aylesbury, dating back to the 12th century, East Leake, Nottinghamshire, Grendon, Northamptonshire, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire and Cold Newton, Leicestershire.

In the North East and Scotland, ridges are dubbed rigs or riggs, (deriving from the Scottish and Old English - or Norse - for ridge and referring to a high point on a hill) with the features often surviving on higher ground, where they have avoided modern ploughing and serve as pasture or grazing land for sheep. No fewer than 4,600 acres of rig and furrow still exist outside Airdrie, for example.

Toro Reelmaster 3575-D on the rig and furrow fairways at Forfar Golf Club.

As a reminder of the history of farming in Britain, ridge and furrows present dramatic topographical features in our landscape. If you’re in charge of sports facilities that include them within your boundaries, they can present special challenges however.

We’re talking golf courses almost exclusively, created in an era when farmland was being transformed into fairways, approaches and greens. The jury’s out on whether ridge and furrow features were retained for fairways because removing them would have been too mammoth a task or too costly – or because golf course architects thought they would bring an added challenge to golfers, as well as interesting topography.

Those that are blessed with their presence have to adapt their practices accordingly. “A few courses in Scotland, such as Strathaven, have the odd hole with rig and furrow fairways but not many have the entire course devoted to them,” comments Keith Law, head greenkeeper at Forfar Golf Club, which has more than its fair share of the features, “and I’ve heard of a couple in England with them.”

“Rig and furrow fairways can challenge the team as much as they do the players,” he stated recently, where the features at Forfar still remain from a time when the ground was used to cultivate flax.

Originally laid out by Old Tom Morris, and later redesigned by James Braid, Forfar’s Cunninghill course also lays claim to be the world’s first to be designed as 18 holes from the outset.

Woods and heathland line undulating fairways, where rig and furrows are clearly evident, “giving the course its uniqueness, with the fairways often presenting an up and down hill lie to make the golfing challenge even more interesting,” Keith maintains.

“A lightweight, manoeuvrable mower is what we needed to tackle the contours effectively,” continues Keith, who runs a Reelmaster 3575-D for the purpose, stating that the machine is “well-balanced, with low centre of gravity, turf-friendly tyres and the ability to maintain cutting consistency.”

“You have to avoid the risk of the grass looking burnt out on the ridges and green in the furrows,” Keith explains, “which can occur if mowers can’t maintain the height of cut or they leave clippings behind.”

The mower, set up with rear roller brush and front groomer, “hugs the ground, picks up the grass in the dips and avoids scalping on the top”, with the brush dispersing clippings and the groomer lifting the grass before cutting.

Keith Law, Head Greenkeeper at Forfar Golf Club (right), with Reesink Scotland’s John Rankin.

It does the job for Keith on undulations, keeping furrowed brows at bay, “and as the lightest fairway mower out there, it minimises soil compression,” he states.

Forfar’s wooded heathland suffered at the hands of storm Arwen, Keith adds. “We’ve lost around 1,500 trees, so time outside of general course maintenance has been spent dealing with that.”

On the bright side, members have noticed and commented on the tighter finish on the fairways since the new mower started work, Keith says, “bringing a links feel to our heathland course.” The other new machinery he’s planning to bring in hopefully will tend Forfar’s challenging topography as carefully.

And, reassuringly, he states: “Although the rig and furrow fairways are not protected in law, members would never agree to altering any of the undulating features.”

What do BIGGA Advise?

Scott Reeves though thinks legislation should embrace rig and furrows and he can claim to have more experience of them than any other greenkeeper perhaps. Now head of membership at BIGGA, Scott was a course manager at two North West clubs, Preston and Leyland, both featuring the characteristic contours.

“To play golf on rig and furrow fairways can be frustrating,” he says, “and managing them means adapting traditional practices to keep them in good order.”

“They may be aligned perpendicular to the line of the tee, which means golfers may not have a fair bounce when the ball hits the fairway and be deprived of a just reward for a well-struck drive,” he explains.

“It was using a single-sided plough that created the ridges, and the looser soil at the top of them allowed water to drain down into the furrows, and from there to a ditch or stream. Crops were then planted in the ridges.”

Serving as course manager at Leyland for 17 years from 2007 to 2024, Scott recalls an unusual benefit the ridge and furrows provided to the Armed Forces in World War II. “The course was sited near one of the largest Royal Ordnance factories in the country and to prevent enemy planes landing on the course and sabotaging it, ridge and furrows were created again, this time at right angles to the line of the fairways. An anti-aircraft gun was installed on site too, just in case.” The strategy worked, and the depot remained intact.

When mowing fairways, it’s easy to miss the turf growing in the troughs of the furrows,” Scott continues. “It was about cutting fairways in a block fashion with a five unit, three in front and two underneath. Close coupled units could follow furrows more closely.”

“If the front cutting units are too far from the rear ones, you can end up scalping the ridges, so front and back must be close together.”

Scott declined to mention brand names but confirmed: “All the manufacturers make a cutting unit, but I found it a challenge to find ones that delivered presentation and were sufficiently robust to cope with cutting three or four times a week.”

Leyland Golf Club. Courtesy of Course manager John Edge.

Leyland practices are still live and kicking, confirms Scott, after speaking with current course manager John Edge. “’They are still good today’, he told me.”

Scott had first encountered the ripples of rig and furrow at nearby Preston, where he served as course manager for three years from 2003, applying his know-how there in managing them across the fairways, as well as a hefty project to introduce drainage into its mediaeval contours, which went ahead that same year.

In contrast to Leyland, where old, hand-dug field tiles from the agriculture days up to a century before were still working well, Scott recalls. “Both courses had been constructed on heavy clay soil. Although drainage hadn’t been an issue at Leyland, it was at Preston where a big project to install drainage in the furrows on several holes went ahead in the spring.”

“Instead of the 10m centres usually installed, we put in pipe drainage and gravel at 2 to 3 metres. On the 13th, for example, drains were put in under every furrow.” In later years his son enjoyed a stint there before recently moving to a course in Australia.

The drainage needed time to bed in and function fully by capillary action, Scott remembers, but fulfilled its purpose over time.

What turfcare measures does Scott recommend for ridge and furrows? “Regular aeration helps,” he says, “but have the aerator at right angles to the ridge and furrows to encourage root depth.

Leyland Golf Club. Courtesy of Course manager John Edge.

“The extensive dry spells we’re experiencing now can make soil hydrophobic, resulting in rainfall collecting in the furrows, so applying a wetting agent assists moisture take-up. As you want a consistent sward, resilient grass species are the way forward – fescues and dwarf ryes really help.”

Erosion and soil settlement over time can reduce the contouring to as little as a foot from top to bottom, Scott adds, but the features still require tailored management. “The type of soil demands an awful lot of nutrition, but I worked on a poverty regime, developing good cultural practices to reduce inputs.”

Two key factors can help ensure ridge and furrow don’t cause chronic issues. “Aerate regularly and avoid cutting too closely is my advice,” Scott concludes.