Tollygunge Club

The Tollygunge Club, known simply as Tolly, is one of India's best-known country clubs. It sits on 100 acres in south Kolkata, about 9 km from the city centre, and the club says it ranks among the top 20 clubs in the world. Alongside golf, members can enjoy tennis, squash, swimming and riding, a bridge room, a salon and an Ayurvedic spa.

Most of the open ground is taken up by an 18-hole golf course. Its wide fairways are framed by lines of trees and patches of woodland, and the club describes them as a lovely sight in every season. The salon on the first floor of Tolly Towers looks out over the 17th hole. There is also a golf practice range that opens early every morning.

The grounds run along the Adi Ganga, locally called Tolly's Nullah, which was once part of the Ganges. The land was first covered in mangroves, and as the water grew less salty, freshwater plants took over. Over the years both native and exotic trees have been planted, so the course now has a rich mix of trees and ponds. That makes it a haven for birds such as cattle egrets, pied mynas, Indian rollers, black drongos, kingfishers and wagtails. Even in the middle of a crowded city, jackals still roam the grounds at night.

The club has 67 rooms, from Deluxe rooms to suites and cottages, spread across Tolly Towers, Tolly Terrace and the Grand Stand Pavilion. Every room is air-conditioned and has Wi-Fi, and breakfast is included. Food and drink range from formal dining halls to casual restaurants and outdoor seating, serving Indian, Continental, Chinese and South Indian food, plus a pastry shop and bars such as the Cruickshank Bar. The well-stocked pro shop sells golf balls, gloves, shoes, bags, clubs, tees and pitch markers, as well as Tolly souvenirs.

The club was founded in 1895 by a Scottish banker, William Dixon Cruickshank, to give the British merchants and bankers of Calcutta somewhere to enjoy games, sport and country-club life. It began as a riding facility. Cruickshank leased part of the land and bought the rest around an 18th-century Palladian garden house. That house had belonged to Richard Johnson of the East India Company, and was later used by Prince Gholam Mohammed Shah, the 11th son of Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore. The house is now the clubhouse, more than 220 years old.

The area used to be called Russapugla, a dense forest of the Sundari, Byne and Garjan trees still found in the Sunderbans. It was renamed Tollygunge after Colonel William Tolly was allowed to dredge the nearby canal and charge a toll on boats heading from Calcutta to East Bengal. The club's own history, 'The Tollygunge Club Since 1895' by Pradip and Amita Das, is on sale in the pro shop.