1. What Is a Cookie?
A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your device (computer, tablet, or mobile phone) when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by websites to make them work, improve performance, and provide information to the site owner.
Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, St. Margaret’s Golf & Country Club) are called “first-party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third-party cookies”. Third-party cookies enable third-party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website.
2. Who Places Cookies on This Site?
Cookies on stmargaretsgolf.com are placed by:
- St. Margaret’s Golf & Country Club (first-party cookies)
- Google Analytics — website analytics
- Facebook / Meta (via PixelYourSite WordPress plugin) — advertising and conversion tracking
- LinkedIn — embedded social content and advertising
- PixelYourSite — analytics management plugin
- Complianz — cookie consent management
- Cloudflare — security and bot protection
- Simple WordPress Membership Plugin — member login sessions
3. Legal Basis for Cookies
Under the GDPR (EU) 2016/679 and the ePrivacy Directive (as implemented in Ireland), we must have a valid legal basis for setting cookies on your device:
- Strictly necessary cookies do not require your consent. They are essential for the website to function and cannot be switched off.
- All other cookies (analytics, advertising, functional) require your prior, freely given, and informed consent before they are placed on your device.
You may withdraw your consent at any time by adjusting your cookie preferences via the consent banner on our website, or by following the browser instructions in Section 6 of this policy.
4. Cookies We Use
The tables below list all cookies identified on stmargaretsgolf.com, grouped by category.
4.1 Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are essential for the website to function correctly. They do not require your consent and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually set in response to actions you take such as logging in or filling in forms.
| Cookie | Domain | Duration | Purpose |
| swpm_session | stmargaretsgolf.com | Session | Simple WordPress Membership Plugin — maintains login session and provides access to protected content. Keeps login records so users do not need to re-authenticate on each page. |
| pbid | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 6 months | PixelYourSite — stores a unique identifier for the visitor to maintain active session state and ensure a consistent user interface during venue booking or rentals. |
| __cf_bm | .linkedin.com | 1 hour | Cloudflare — supports Cloudflare Bot Management to protect the site from automated malicious traffic. |
| wpEmojiSettingsSupports | stmargaretsgolf.com | Session | WordPress — checks whether the user’s browser supports emoji rendering. No personal data is collected. |
| cmplz_id | stmargaretsgolf.com | Session | Complianz — stores cookie consent preferences to remember your choices on the cookie banner. |
4.2 Analytics Cookies
These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. They require your consent.
| Cookie | Domain | Duration | Purpose |
| pys_session_limit | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 1 hour | PixelYourSite — manages analytical session data and helps track session boundaries. |
| pys_start_session | .stmargaretsgolf.com | Session | PixelYourSite — records the start of a visitor session for analytical purposes. |
| pys_first_visit | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 7 days | PixelYourSite — records whether this is the visitor’s first visit to the site, used to distinguish new from returning visitors. |
| pysTrafficSource | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 7 days | PixelYourSite — records the traffic source (e.g. Google, direct, social) to help understand how visitors find the site. |
| pys_landing_page | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 7 days | PixelYourSite — records the first page visited in a session to understand landing page performance. |
| last_pysTrafficSource | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 7 days | PixelYourSite — records the most recent traffic source for returning visitors. |
| last_pys_landing_page | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 7 days | PixelYourSite — records the most recent landing page for returning visitors. |
4.3 Advertisement Cookies
These cookies are set by our advertising partners (Facebook/Meta and LinkedIn) to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They require your consent. They do not store directly personal information but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device.
| Cookie | Domain | Duration | Purpose |
| _fbp | .stmargaretsgolf.com | 3 months | Facebook / Meta — placed by the Facebook Pixel (via PixelYourSite) to store and track interactions for advertising purposes and to measure the effectiveness of Facebook ad campaigns. |
| bcookie | .linkedin.com | 1 year | LinkedIn — tracks use of embedded LinkedIn services and buttons on the site for advertising and remarketing purposes. |
4.4 Functional Cookies
These cookies enable enhanced functionality such as LinkedIn embedded content. They may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. They require your consent.
| Cookie | Domain | Duration | Purpose |
| lidc | .linkedin.com | 1 day | LinkedIn — facilitates data centre selection to improve performance when LinkedIn content is embedded on the site. |
| li_gc | .linkedin.com | 6 months | LinkedIn — stores the visitor’s consent choices for non-essential LinkedIn cookies. |
4.5 Other / Unclassified Cookies
The following cookies have been identified on our site but do not fall neatly into the above categories. We are reviewing these cookies and will update this policy accordingly.
| Cookie | Domain | Duration | Purpose |
| lastExternalReferrer | stmargaretsgolf.com | Persistent | Records the last external referrer URL for analytics and tracking purposes. Retained indefinitely — we are reviewing whether this is necessary. |
| lastExternalReferrerTime | stmargaretsgolf.com | Persistent | Records the timestamp of the last external referral. Retained indefinitely — we are reviewing whether this is necessary. |
| cmplz_user_data | stmargaretsgolf.com | Session | Complianz — temporarily stores user consent data during the session. |
| boxzilla_pageviews | stmargaretsgolf.com | Session | Boxzilla — tracks the number of pages viewed in a session to determine when to display pop-up notifications. |
5. Your Consent
When you first visit our website, a cookie consent banner is displayed. You can choose to:
- Accept all cookies — all cookie categories will be enabled
- Reject non-essential cookies — only strictly necessary cookies will be set
- Customise your preferences — choose which categories of cookies to enable
Your consent choice is stored (via the cmplz_id cookie set by Complianz) so you are not asked again on every visit. You may change your preferences at any time by clicking the cookie settings link in the footer of our website.
Important: Under GDPR, refusing non-essential cookies must be as straightforward as accepting them. Our consent banner provides equal prominence to both Accept and Reject options.
6. How to Control and Delete Cookies
6.1 Via Your Browser
Most web browsers allow you to manage cookies through your browser settings. You can set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. The following links explain how to manage cookies in the most common browsers:
- Google Chrome: chrome://settings/cookies
- Mozilla Firefox: about:preferences#privacy
- Apple Safari: Preferences > Privacy
- Microsoft Edge: edge://settings/privacy
Please note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of this and many other websites. In particular, disabling strictly necessary cookies may prevent you from logging in to the Members area or completing bookings.
6.2 Opt-Out Links for Third-Party Cookies
You can opt out of specific third-party cookies using the links below:
- Google Analytics: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
- Facebook / Meta Ad Preferences: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences
- LinkedIn Ad Settings: https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/advertising
- Your Online Choices (EU): https://www.youronlinechoices.eu
7. Cookie Retention Periods
Cookie consent recorded by our Complianz CMP is stored for a maximum of 6 months, in line with CNIL guidelines and GDPR best practice. After this period, we will ask for your consent again.
Individual cookie durations are listed in the tables in Section 4. We do not set cookies with durations longer than 13 months for analytics or advertising purposes.
The two cookies identified with “never” expiry (lastExternalReferrer and lastExternalReferrerTime) are persistent cookies that do not expire. We are currently reviewing whether these are necessary and will update this policy with the outcome.
8. Changes to This Cookie Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time as our use of cookies changes or as legal requirements evolve. The ‘Last updated’ date at the top of this page will reflect when changes were made. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
Where changes are material (for example, we add a new category of advertising cookie), we will re-request your consent via the cookie banner.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions about our use of cookies or this Cookie Policy, please contact us:
St. Margaret’s Golf & Country Club
- St. Margaret’s, Co. Dublin, K67 K339, Ireland
- Email: info@stmargaretsgolf.com
- Phone: 01 864 0400