Durness Golf Club: a local idea with a very big setting
Sand, rock and a wide northern sky make a strong first impression at Durness. Golf gives you a reason to stay with that landscape for a while. Put a round in the diary and the day takes on a different shape: less time watching the coast through a windscreen, more time outside with something absorbing to do.
The Durness coast — the wider setting for a day of golf, rather than a view of the course. Photo: Michał Robak. Source · Pexels licence.
There is a local story behind the club as well as a striking setting. Durness Golf Club opened in 1988, designed by three local enthusiasts: Lachie Ross, Ian Morrison and Francis Keith. That origin is worth remembering when you arrive. This is somewhere people made golf happen in their own corner of Scotland.
Give a small course proper time
The course has nine holes, with a second set of tees offering an eighteen-hole round. Decide which suits the day when you book. Nine can give the afternoon a clear focus; eighteen lets you settle into the game for longer.
Either way, leave some space around the tee time. Put the driving, the round and the rest of the afternoon on the same page before deciding how much to fit in. A game is more enjoyable when supper and the next long drive are not competing for your attention over the closing holes.
The coast in the opening photograph is part of the wider Durness setting. The club's own photographs and visitor information give the closer view of the course itself.
Sort the useful details before arriving
Durness welcomes visitors and offers online tee-time booking and payment. If the clubs have stayed at home, contact the club ahead of time about hire. Arranging that small detail early turns the idea of a round into something you can build the day around.
The clubhouse is generally staffed from April to September. Outside that period, use the visitor information and contact the club for anything you need to arrange. Play is weather-dependent, and competitions can affect availability; the booking page is the place for current tee times and fees.
- Choose nine or eighteen holes before making the rest of the day's plans.
- Reserve equipment directly with the club if you need it.
- Leave room for the conditions, especially when the forecast is changeable.
Stay a little longer in Durness
Golf works well as the centre of a Durness day. Leave another part of it unhurried: a look at the shore, a meal, a pause before getting back on the road. The appeal lies in giving one place enough time to become more than a name on a signpost.
For the cave, coast and other reasons to linger, read Durness and Smoo Cave.
Sources and further reading
