2nd November 2023

Golfing In the Northern Highlands of Scotland

Balnagown is the perfect base

If you are under the thrall of that fickle mistress of golf, she will have you yearning for the home of that royal and ancient sport. Scotland has over 550 courses, both beguiling and frustrating in equal measure. It offers you an array of delights with links, parkland, the traditional and the modern, the 9-hole, and the 18. The Northern Highlands in particular is a golfer’s paradise.

Golf in the Northern Highlands

The lands north of Inverness offers the golf enthusiast not only the courses of a lifetime but an array of added extras that turn this from a great trip to the experience of a lifetime. Mother nature has been kind enough to bless this part of Scotland with a very special microclimate that offers less rainfall than the south of England, the perfect accompaniment to the 16 golf courses that adorn this spectacular coastline as it ascends from the rolling white sands in and around Inverness to the mighty stone stacks and sheer cliffs of Sutherland.

Blend in the nectar of not one but five whisky distilleries, an extraordinary landscape, picturesque villages, and of course, Balnagown Estate and you have the recipe for something very special.

Golf and Balnagown

Balnagown is a 39,000-acre traditional Scottish estate that stretches from the Cromarty Firth to within five miles of the west coast and is ideally located just off the A9 (NC500) between Inverness and Dornoch, respectively home to Castle Stuart/ Cabot Highland and Royal Dornoch.

It is in the heart of this little microclimate and boasts nine traditionally built and individually styled holiday properties, and a variety of facilities that include lochside beaches and barbeques, firepits, wild swimming and paddle boarding lochs, gardens, and acres to discover and enjoy. Chefs can be procured for your entire stay, tours arranged, and transport facilitated.

Royal Dornoch and Balnagown

The ‘spellbinding’ Royal Dornoch is a credit to Dornoch’s favourite son,

Donald Ross, one of the greatest golf architects of all time. This ‘out and back’ course with its raised green domes, distances, lips and mounds; that hugs the curve of the coastline as it looks out across the Dornoch Firth towards Portmahomack and Tarbat Ness is simply breathtaking in both art and design. It lies less than half an hour from Balnagown, the route taking you across the Dornoch Firth, itself a joy to cross.

Visit www.RoyalDornoch.com to learn more.

Castle Stuart/Calbot Highland and Balnagown

An exhilarating, stirring, and clever modern course that gives you the feel of complete isolation, a private meditation. There is drama from beginning to end. You will find yourself teeing off into the unknown from ridges cut into the cliff and later with heart in mouth tackling infinity greens. With any good drama such moments of high tension are interplayed with moments of complete and utter serenity, compelled by the captivating views across the Moray Firth as you play oceanside.

Visit www.cabothighlands.com to learn more.

The Golf Connoisseur

The true connoisseur knows that the real fun lies not just in the big names but in all the superb little courses you find in Scotland, the sort of courses that anywhere else in the world would be contenders, such as Tain, or those little pearls, such as Brora. Most of the time as a golfer you play against yourself, and these small courses will test your metal, improve your game, and leave you a better player. Golf Writer, Jim Finigan describes Tain as “golf in a minor key… Having said that, let me quickly add that Tain, in its minor key, is one of the most unusual and enjoyable courses in the entire country.” It has good bones with 11 of Old Tom’s holes still remaining, some clever water hazards, blind shots, and changes of direction.

It is easy to wax lyrical about Tain, that too sits on the Dornoch Firth and takes in the breathtaking landscape and awe-inspiring light. On the social side, it is one of the friendliest clubs around and there can be nothing better than taking a dram under the Aurora Borealis. It happens to be one of the best places to it see it as it plays over the sea.

Visit www.Tain-golfclub.co.uk to learn more.