The links golf circuit across Scotland and Ireland is the pilgrimage that serious golfers return to again and again, always finding something new. I've taken groups through it eleven times in varying configurations and I'm still discovering courses I missed. But for a first-time crossing, there's a spine itinerary that I come back to — proven, logical, and built around the idea that the journey between courses is as much a part of the experience as the rounds themselves.
**The spine: nine rounds, fourteen nights**
Old Course St Andrews → Royal Dornoch → Brora → Ballyliffin → Royal County Down → Lahinch → Ballybunion → Old Head → Waterville. Fourteen nights, nine championship rounds, one ferry crossing, roughly 1,100 miles of driving through some of the most dramatic coastal landscapes in Europe.
Some clients want to fly between Scotland and Ireland. I always advise against it. The Strangford ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast takes two hours and twenty minutes; you wake up in Scotland with golf bags in the boot, you arrive in Northern Ireland in the afternoon, and the transition feels earned. Flying produces a different kind of trip — one that moves between airports rather than coastlines.
**St Andrews: the ballot and how we handle it**
The Old Course ballot opens 48 hours in advance for next-day play and is genuinely random. Success rate in summer is roughly 30–40%. We supplement with confirmed tee times on Jubilee Course (excellent — underrated by those who only want the Old) and a ballot entry, making the week's golf viable regardless of ballot outcome.
We use the Old Course Hotel or Hamilton Grand for clients who want proximity. Both are correct choices with different characters: the Old Course Hotel is more modern and better serviced; Hamilton Grand is a converted building of extraordinary beauty with the best view in St Andrews.
**Dornoch: the best links course most English golfers have never played**
Royal Dornoch is four hours north of St Andrews, in a town of 1,200 people on the Dornoch Firth. It was where Tom Watson learned to play links golf, and where he has returned throughout his career. Third Carnegie Medal winner. Ranked in most lists' top ten UK courses.
The challenge of Dornoch is that it's remote, which is the point. You commit to the drive north, you stay two nights in the Royal Golf Hotel (basic but correct), and you play Dornoch twice. The second round is always better than the first. The course's subtlety reveals itself on repeat.
Brora Golf Club, fifteen minutes further north, is the discovery: a James Braid design from 1923 that has barely changed, shared with working sheep who are considered a lateral water hazard under local rules. Green fee £55. I've played it six times and I still find holes I didn't fully understand before.
**The ferry south**
From Dornoch, we drive south through the Highlands to Cairnryan — a full day, with stops at Glencoe and potentially a night in Glasgow. The ferry to Belfast overnight means waking up in Northern Ireland.
**Northern Ireland: Ballyliffin and Royal County Down**
Ballyliffin Golf Club on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal — technically the Republic, but accessible from Northern Ireland in an hour — is the hidden gem of this circuit. Two courses: the Old Links and Glashedy. The Old Links is the more famous; Glashedy, designed by Pat Ruddy, is the better course. Green fee €85.
Royal County Down at Newcastle is, by common consensus, one of the ten greatest golf courses in the world. The view from the ninth tee — Slieve Donard behind you, Dundrum Bay in front, gorse in full bloom if you're there in May — is the most-photographed moment in Irish golf. Green fee €250 for visitor days. Book six months in advance.
**Lahinch, Ballybunion, Old Head, Waterville**
The West of Ireland circuit is its own trip — we sometimes run it as a standalone — but as the finale of this crossing it provides the payoff the whole journey has been building toward.
Lahinch is one of the great links experiences in world golf: blind shots, heaving terrain, a history going back to 1893, and a town that exists entirely in service of golfers. Green fee €130.
Ballybunion Old Course — Tom Watson's favourite golf course. Two thousand years of Kerry coast. Terrain so natural it looks like the holes were placed where they had to be. Green fee €150.
Old Head Golf Links outside Kinsale: a cape of land jutting into the Atlantic, the course entirely surrounded by ocean on three sides, two hundred metres above the water. Pure spectacle. Worth the €250 green fee once. Just once, then go back to Ballybunion.
Waterville Golf Links in Kerry — remote, challenging, deeply beautiful, a Val Cronin creation from 1973 that draws comparisons with courses twice its age. Green fee €135.
**The reality of fourteen nights**
This trip requires genuine commitment. Seven nights in Scotland, seven in Ireland, a car that handles well on single-track roads in the rain, and a relationship with uncertainty — ballot outcomes, weather, the pub you end up in because the planned restaurant was full. That unpredictability is what makes it unforgettable.
Total cost for fourteen nights, all accommodation and green fees, excluding flights: approximately £3,200 to £3,800 per person. Add return flights from London if you're not driving from home.
James Whitmore
Golf Travel Specialist · View profile →
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