Stornoway Golf Club is willing to go to court to win the right to play golf on a Sunday after 117 years of Sabbath observance.

Its office bearers are seeking a meeting with the Stornoway Trust, the club's landlords, to negotiate over the clause in their lease that forbids golf being played on Sunday.

At the club's recent annual general meeting a vote was taken and it is understood that only four voted for the status quo out of the 130 members who were entitled to vote, although there were a considerable number of abstentions.

An unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Stornoway Trust to be flexible over the Sunday prohibition was made two years ago. However, the club has since taken counsel's opinion and believes it has grounds to mount a legal challenge to the clause, if necessary.

It is understood that the lease, which is around 20 years old, allows for arbitration in the event of a dispute. Any such arbitration is supposed to take account of any changes in circumstances and attitudes, and ensure that the terms of the lease do not impede the enjoyment of the club.

A spokesman for the golf club's committee, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Herald: "The issue of playing on a Sunday comes up at virtually every AGM and this year the committee action was to pursue it.

"We took legal advice and had a special general meeting on Monday where we had a decision in favour. So we will be seeking a meeting with the Stornoway Trust, but haven't actually sent the letter off yet."

Iain MacIver, factor of the Stornoway Trust, said yesterday: "We have not yet received any request from the golf club for a meeting to discuss the clause prohibiting Sunday golf. One may well be on its way, but I cannot make any comment at this stage."

If the move is successful, it will be seen as another blow to those fighting to protect the last bastion of the Hebridean Sabbath, who already fear a possible Sunday ferry service next year.

In his widely-read column in the West Highland Free Press this week, Professor Donald Macleod, principal of the Free Church College in Edinburgh, referred to golf's part in the erosion of the Sabbath, and pointed the finger at some Church of Scotland ministers. "The ministers who ran the Kirk 50 years ago have a lot to answer for.

"It was they who introduced the notion of the Brighter Sunday', telling the nation God could as well be worshipped on mountain and golf course as in church. The people took them at their word and deserted the pews in droves." He concluded: "With the Lord's Day the church rises or falls."

It remains to be seen how strongly the Stornoway Trust still adheres to this Sabbatarian tradition.

The trust came into being five years after Lord Leverhulme bought the island of Lewis for £150,000 from the Matheson family in 1918. Leverhulme had made his fortune from soap having founded Lever Brothers. In 1923, he gifted Lews Castle and 64,000 acres of land to the people of Stornoway parish. The trust was established to manage this estate for the community.

The golf club predated the trust, being established in 1890. According to the Golfing Annual of 1890-91, it was situated on the Melbost links within three miles of the Burgh of Stornoway. The site is now Stornoway Airport.

The course was requisitioned during the war. The club pursued a claim against the Air Ministry through the Land Court and in 1946 an award of £9600 was made to cover the cost of the construction of an 18-hole course and a clubhouse.

The Stornoway Trust allotted the club an area of Lews Castle's land and construction of the course was completed in October 1947.