Where To Next - Golspie
BY MURRAY BOTHWELL
5 MIN READ
When James Braid was in the prime of his course designs in 1926 it would have taken him some time to reach Golspie from Fife. It’s much quicker now to reach this town on the North Coast 500, readily accessible by road and rail. Heading north out of Inverness over causeways and bridges, the unrestricted skies over the Moray Firth and Sutherland stretch before you as you approach Golspie. The sea glints to your right as you cross the welcoming estuary of the River Fleet, a haven for all kinds of wading birdlife, seals, otters and more. It’s a conservation area and it’s clear to see why: this road less travelled makes you smile. Above, on the skyline and some 1,300 feet above the shore, stands the 100-foot-high monument to the Duke of Sutherland. The panoramic views south to the coast of Moray and northeast to, well, Norway are good for the soul.
This is an ideal area for mixing excellent golf with immersing yourself in the history of Sutherland. Dunrobin Castle and its 189 rooms looks out over the Dornoch Firth from its backdrop of dense forest at the northern edge of the town. The most northerly of Scotland's great houses, the castle resembles a white French chateau. Royal Dornoch sits 11 miles to the south and a short drive north, along the edge of the sandy beaches and dunes, brings you to Brora where, in common with Golspie, golfers share the fairways with local sheep and cows, bringing a new dimension to the game. Greens are protected by small electric fences, a slice of modern life that fits with golf as it used to be.
The area is a mecca for Braid enthusiasts, his Appreciation Society being based at Brora. Golspie has a very different style to the nearby courses, beginning with meadowland which turns to links and then to tree-lined, heathland fairways dappled with rich, purple heathers before winding its way back down to the coast over stretches of parkland and links again. With its unforgettable pin placements, tiered plateau greens and judicious bunkering throughout, this clever mix of fairway formats demands full concentration as clubbing yardages vary and strategies alter to suit.
Brora is a more traditional links, taking you straight out and back, and fully exposed to the vagaries of the wind and weather. You’ll see this as soon as you arrive at the Clubhouse, sat at the course’s southern end and with the most amazing views over the links. Occupying a narrow strip of old dunes and tightly-nibbled grass, the fairways run mostly parallel to the beach, occasionally turning inland to the mountains or back towards a crumbling edge above the sandy beach. Aerial mapping does not give any feel for the depth of the rolling hummocks, the old dune complexes nor the islands of billowing, wispy grasses which sit like islands separating the fairways. Blind shots, undulations and clever swales on well-protected greens make Brora an experience that is hard to beat.
More great courses lie waiting when you head south. Royal Dornoch’s world-renowned championship course occupies the same ancient links as its sister course, The Struie. Set against the curving bay of the Firth and its magnificent broad white beaches, Dornoch is backed by a narrow strip of softly-contoured linksland rising in two distinctive levels, providing just enough room for parallel fairways. Its ridges, hillocks, dunes and undulations have all the characters of the best of links courses and, with wind and gorse in equal measures, most of the difficulties. It’s hard to keep your mind on the game at hand with crashing waves distracting you from clutch putts at the water’s edge, or a small aircraft landing at the narrow grass strip separating the two courses. These surroundings are simply spectacular.
A short drive further south takes you past Tain, the home of Glenmorangie whisky and the booming sounds from the nearby RAF bombing ranges, and across the Cromarty Firth to a narrowing triangle of dunes upon which the 15th oldest Club in the world plays its golf. Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club’s links are regular recipients of industry awards. The linear course is bounded by the sea on two sides, the old mounds providing some protection out by the lighthouse. Fairways rise and fall between dense pockets of gorse, and their undulating greens are both fast and deceptive. In the land of Braid, this is a trademark course with an Old Head landscape and is surely an essential stop en route to, or from, this golfing paradise.