Former Open winner Paul Lawrie is to design his first signature golf course in the latest of several new championship-level sites earmarked for Scotland.

The £115m development of a former Catholic seminary on Deeside, west of Aberdeen, will include the transformation of the historic Blairs College into a hotel, conference and leisure centre.

The course at the heart of the development is the third championship venue planned for the Aberdeen area.

Donald Trump is seeking permission for "the best links golf course in the world" on the Menie estate near Balmedie to the north of the city, and last week Jack Nicklaus flew in to the Ury estate, near Stonehaven, where he plans to design a course.

At least another three courses are planned in Scotland, including Gleneagles, St Andrews and East Lothian.

The Muir Group, which is responsible for the development at Blairs, said yesterday the project would safeguard the long-term future of the Blairs Museum which for almost two centuries has housed a collection of paintings, vestments, silver and Jacobite memorabilia belonging to the Scottish Catholic Church.

John Muir, chairman, said it would also create 1000 jobs and help the area become "one of the world's top golfing destinations".

He added: "Blairs will unite all that is good from Paul's amazing worldwide golf course experiences with the stunning countryside of Royal Deeside a design that I am confident will attract a European Tour event to the north-east in future years. I see it as like St Andrews, which is world class.

"The same opportunity is presenting itself to Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. If it had all three, it would become a centre of excellence of difficult golf courses."

Scotland already boasts more than 550 courses, including five of the eight Open Championship venues, but membership at golf clubs has fallen over the past decade.

However, the top courses are still as popular as ever and industry experts say the high-quality developments under way will give a boost to the industry. VisitScotland figures taken from research on 70 courses around Scotland shows the value of golf tourism from these alone is more than £96.7m.

Golfers are also high spenders. On average, they spend twice that of other visitors to Scotland. For every £1 spent on a green fee, a further £5 is spent in shops, restaurants or on accommodation.

Michael Harris, editor of Golf Monthly magazine, welcomed the proposals.

He said: "It is absolutely a good thing, particularly as they are all going to be high-quality projects.

"There is always a gap in the market for high-end development, particularly in Scotland where there are so many fantastic courses anyway."

Mark McCardie, VisitScotland product manager for golf in the UK market, said if the new developments are completed, it could help bring in extra revenue.

He said: "Resorts where everything is in one place appeal to the American market and also emerging markets like China and Russia."

However, as many of the developments include major housing and leisure facilities, they are perceived by some as a way of creating rural housing by stealth.

The Blairs project will involve the building of 280 new houses, while the Trump development will include 950 holiday homes, 36 golf villas, an accommodation building for 400 staff and 500 houses. The Ury estate plans include 230 houses. Henry Irvine Fortescue, secretary of Green Wedge, a residents' group established 15 years ago to try and preserve the character of the area around Blairs, said they would object to the new development.

He said: "This is just a ploy to bring new houses into the green belt. The houses are not necessary. We have nothing particularly against the golf course or the conversion of the main Blairs college into a hotel, but it seems to be a ploy to get houses into the greenbelt and we don't think that is acceptable."

In addition to concerns over housing, there are also environmental impacts to building new golf courses. Several groups have already submitted objections to Mr Trump's proposals.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is concerned that the development at Menie will damage an important nature conservation site and sand dune habitats.

Richard Ferguson, planning adviser at SNH and a representative on the steering group of the Scottish Golf Environment Group, said new course development could go ahead without impacting negatively on environmental concerns.

"If it is done in the right place and the right way, it can all be fine," he said.

"The problem is that sometimes environmental issues aren't thought about and then we run into problems."