The Highlands

Remote Magnificence

The Highlands

Scotland's northern frontier offers some of the most dramatic and uncrowded golf in the world. Royal Dornoch sits at the top of every connoisseur's bucket list.

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The Highlands — Course Map

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Royal Dornoch

Location
Dornoch, Scotland
Opened
1877
Designer
Old Tom Morris
Rankings
4th best golf course in Scotland, top100golfcourse.com, 12th best golf course in the world, Golf Magazine (2021)

Architect Donald Ross grew up on Royal Dornoch’s Championship links, who would later adapt many of the features—including his famous turtleback greens at North Carolina’s Pinehurst No. 2—from Dornoch. The out and back routing takes full advantage of the ocean and the hillside inland, with many of the greens sitting into the hillside or perfectly above small depressions with the trademark run offs around the greens. The par 4, 14th, nicknamed “Foxy”, is often referred to as the best bunker-less hole in the world, and members often refer to how difficult it is for a first time visitor to figure it out. The joys of links golf cannot be understated at a place as special as Dornoch’s championship layout.

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Cabot Highlands — Castle Stuart

Location
Inverness, Scotland
Opened
2009
Designer
Gil Hanse & Mark Parsinen
Events
Scottish Open (4 times)
Rankings
8th best golf course in Scotland, top100golfcourse.com, 77th best golf course in the world, Golf Magazine (2021)

Gil Hanse’s Castle Stuart is the latest acquisition in the crowing Canadian-based Cabot brand, but fans of history will remember Castle Stuart being the place where Phil Mickelson played the Scottish Open the week before winning his lone Open Championship in 2013. As is true with other Gil Hanse designs, smart, strategic green complexes with a considerable amount of contour await, and width allows golfers to pick and choose the route they want to play the hole from, while offering rewards for those correctly selecting the best route for the day’s pin location.

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Cabot Highlands — Old Petty

Location
Inverness, Scotland
Opened
2025
Designer
Tom Doak (Renaissance Golf Design)
Rankings
20th best golf course in Scotland, top100golfcourse.com

The newest addition to Cabot Highlands, Old Petty is a Tom Doak-designed links built on a remarkable parcel of natural Moray Firth coastline next door to Castle Stuart. True to Doak's minimalist philosophy — the same that produced Pacific Dunes, Ballyneal, and Tara Iti — the routing follows the contours of the existing land with minimal earthmoving, weaving through gentle dunes and broom-covered ridges with sweeping views to the Black Isle and Kessock Bridge. Opened to widespread acclaim in 2025, Old Petty immediately establishes itself as one of the most exciting new links in the modern era and the perfect counterpoint to its older neighbour at the same resort.

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Nairn Golf Club

Location
Nairn, Scotland
Opened
1887
Designer
Old Tom Morris
Events
1999 Walker Cup, Curtis Cup
Rankings
20th best golf course in Scotland, top100golfcourse.com

Golfers are surprised to find out that Nairn’s championship layout provides ocean views from every single hole, a rarity given the dunes and low-lying links land in Scotland. More than just the views, however, is the splendid terrain for golf, strategically peppered with bunkers and green complexes meticulously located and maintained. At 20th in Scotland, there is no doubt Nairn is overlooked given its tough competition in the country, but those who visit will find one of the more special golf courses in the world.

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Cruden Bay

Location
Peterhead, Scotland
Opened
1899
Designer
Old Tom Morris
Rankings
11th best golf course in the world, top100golfcourse.com, 63rd best golf course in the world, Golf Magazine (2021)

Among the most interesting golf courses in Scotland is Cruden Bay, effortlessly navigating the rugged linksland and almost 40-foot-high sand dunes. Given the landscape, many of the holes are actually secluded from the rest of the golf course—a rarity in Scotland. A landscape dotted with bunkers and gently undulating fairways at the bottom of the dunes is a commonality in the British Isles, but you’ll see greens unlike anything else in the world at Cruden Bay, making this a highlight of any trip.

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Fortrose and Rosemarkie

Location
Fortrose, Scotland
Opened
1888
Designer
James Braid
Rankings
72nd best golf course in Scotland, top100golfcourse.com

Set on the wind-swept tip of the Black Isle's Chanonry Point peninsula, Fortrose and Rosemarkie is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world — founded in 1888 — and one of Scotland's most charming hidden gems. The signature feature is the lighthouse at the point and the bottlenose dolphins that regularly surface in the Moray Firth right beside the course, especially around the 4th hole, which many consider one of the finest signature holes in the Highlands. James Braid's compact links routing makes the most of the narrow strip of duneland, offering tight, traditional links golf with sweeping views to Inverness and the surrounding mountains.

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Brora

Location
Brora, Scotland
Opened
1891
Designer
John Sutherland
Rankings
28th best golf course in Scotland, top100golfcourse.com

With a traditional out and back routing alongside the North Sea coastline, Brora perhaps has the most oceanside golf in Scotland, a true feat in a country defined by the proximity to the sea. Windswept, gently rolling terrain compliments the pot bunkers, firm, yet interesting green complexes, and the twisty-turvy fairways. Five-time Open champion Peter Thomson regularly visited Brora, and it is said it was his favourite golf course in the world.

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Golspie

Location
Golspie, Scotland
Opened
1889
Designer
Mother Nature/Unknown
Rankings
63rd best golf course in Scotland, top100golfcourse.com

A stunning mix of meadowland, linksland, forest, heathland, and parkland golf provides Golspie with a cocktail of various biomes to help separate itself against competitors, and it does just that. The mix of different styles of golf not only works together, but helps keep the golfer on their toes: from the 288 yard par 4, 5th, or the stretch from the 8th to the 10th in the trees. If variety is the name of the game, very few—if any—can compete with the splendid Golspie.

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