Swansea is a valuable and important environmental asset to the North Side of the Narragansett Bay with property extending over one mile along the Palmer River traversing the towns of Swansea, MA and Warren, RI. Total land area is 300 acres including a 50 acre freshwater pond, several other ponds, nearly 50 acres of saltwater marsh and over 100 acres of forest.

For most of the 1900’s Swansea served as a personal hunting and fishing preserve for Mr. Isaac Merriman a significant textile merchant of Fall River, Massachusetts. Mr. Merriman built a levy and damn along the banks of the Palmer River which created the 50 Acre freshwater pond adjacent to the river. The Palmer River widens significantly as it moves past the property and it become part of the Narragansett Bay. The endangered Osprey have long roosted on platforms on Swansea and neighboring properties on each side of the river.

In the early 1960’s Mr. Nelson Doyle (no relation to the current owners) bought the property and built the golf course completing it in 1963. He had engaged Geoffrey Cornish to design the course and enlisted many local golf course superintendents such as Malcolm “Mal” Wendell to help. For 25 Years the property owned by the Doyle Family and managed by Sheila and Paul Doyle. In the late 80’s the property was sold to a group of investors who intended to redevelop the property into a residential subdivision but with the late 80’s early 90’s decline in the real estate market, their concept was never realized.

In 1992, another Doyle Family purchased the property with a small group of investors and have set out to substantially renovate the golf course and bring modern maintenance practices to this classic layout. While much has been done, each year the owners set out to make important improvements to the property.