Aberdeen's Majestic Dunes
BY ED HODGE
6 MINS READ
“It’s perfect golfing land, stunning landscape.”
If golf by the sea in Scotland conjures images of Ayrshire, East Lothian and Fife, the unique coastal dunes of Aberdeenshire deserve attention too.
The opening words of Hector Emslie, Golf Tourism Manager at VisitAberdeenshire, accurately sum up a stretch of north-east coastline to savour.
Sinking your teeth into it is perhaps playing too much on a pun – given Cruden Bay’s links to Bram Stoker’s Dracula – but we’ll come to that later…
Put simply, rugged cliffs and imposing sand dunes overlook the golden beaches along the Aberdeenshire and Banffshire coast. That is music to the ears of the golfer keen for seaside play and striking scenery to match.
Royal Aberdeen’s Balgownie course, a home to leading amateur and professional events down the years, is one of the truest linkslands. The front nine holes rank amongst the very best in the world, with gorgeous turf and tight rolling fairways. The course is a classic links layout – out through the dunes and back along a plateau. Murcar Links, where in-form Challenge Tour player Craig Howie won the Scottish Boys Championship in 2012, nestles as a friendly neighbour next door. It consistently ranks among the nation’s leading links venues, with magnificent views from elevated tees across the North Sea and to Aberdeen City in the south.
For more thrills, Trump International – a stunning modern design only opened in 2012 – is perhaps unrivalled for its spectacular dunes. All 18 holes thread their way engagingly through the striking terrain, rising to find views of the sea and coastline and then plunging into secluded valleys. It’s terrific topography and continues a wonderful stretch of dunes coastline.
“From Trump International, the sand-based dunes go up and around 28 kilometres north of Aberdeen,” explains Hector. “Some of them are intermingled by rocky out crops. Cruden Bay has a fabulous beach, for about a mile long it is beautiful, and then you come to a rocky outcrop at the very southern tip. North of Cruden Bay you have what is called the ‘Bullers of Buchan’, a tourist attraction in its own right, as the cliffs are so steep.”
The Bullers refers both to a collapsed sea cave and to the adjacent village, situated six miles south of Peterhead in Buchan, Aberdeenshire. The outcrops continue to south of Peterhead and from where the golf course is situated – the 18th oldest in the world – you will find yet more sandy beaches and dunes stretching right round the Banff and Buchan coast and on to Inverallochy, Fraserburgh and such like.
Steven Young, who won three-in-a-row Scottish Boys titles from 1993, hails from Inverallochy. “It’s a little like Crail, in that the dunes are less in height but it’s right on the foreshore of the North Sea – it’s absolutely stunning,” beams Hector.
But back to Cruden Bay, some 35 miles north of Aberdeen…
If the golf course needs little introduction, simply a thrilling, world-class place to enjoy a game, it’s the historical ties to the area that continue the theme of dunes golf.
“There was an ancient battle fought at Cruden Bay back in the Viking days,” explains Hector. “It was ‘The Battle of Cruden’ and dates back to 1012. King Malcolm II of Scotland defeated Canute of Denmark and Norway.
“The Vikings tried to invade on that land and the fallen on both sides are said to be buried beneath the 17th fairway at Cruden Bay. There is St Olaf Chapel on site and St Olaf was the Patron Saint of both Norway and Denmark. The St Olaf Hotel is also located right next to the course and many visitors, particularly those from Scandinavia have shown a very keen interest in the history over the years.”
Fittingly, St Olaf is the name of the 9-hole course at Cruden Bay, a lovely test itself just short of 2,500 yards. On the coast of Cruden Bay also lie the remains of Slains Castle. It is an imposing building, surrounded by jagged cliffs, and you can see how the Castle’s gothic appearance and dramatic location was an inspiration for Stoker’s most famous novel, written in 1895.
“Bram Stoker used to go on holiday and stay in the Kilmarnock Arms at Cruden Bay, where his signature is on the guest book,” reveals Hector. “It’s reckoned he got the inspiration for Count Dracula from his visits to Cruden Bay and Slains Castle.”
From dunes to Dracula, what a visit to the north-east can uncover!