Stirlingshire, From the archive

Parkland courses under the hills
in Scotland.

It’s 21:32 in Scotland.

True or false21 hours ago

True or false: a golfer from Jedburgh won an Olympic medal.

Cruden Bay had a golf club long before the railway built its links: a ballot box marked 'Cruden Golf Club 1791' survives.

Those first golfers are thought to have played on Ward Hill, which can be seen from the third hole of today's golf course.

See Cruden Bay Golf Club · Aberdeenshire

Course of the day19 hours ago

Balnagask Golf Course.

Golf has been played on the Balnagask headland since 1905, at the mouth of Aberdeen harbour, with the North Sea for a boundary and the ships coming and going below. It is a public course, run for the city, over rolling coastal ground of hidden fairways, high tees and ravines walled with gorse; one member said it was so hilly it kept him fit. Beside it stands the Girdle Ness lighthouse, built by Robert Stevenson and first lit in 1833, after a whaling ship was wrecked in the bay below and only two of the 44 on board were saved. The lighthouse is on the club's crest. At the course's edge is Torry Battery, the old harbour fort, said to be the best place in Scotland to watch bottlenose dolphins.

WhereTorry, AberdeenGolf since1905Course18 holes, clifftop, publicLaid out byArchie Simpson, James Braid

See the course

Did you know19 hours ago

The slow-motion beach run that opens Chariots of Fire was filmed on the West Sands, beside the golf links at St Andrews, on 24 April 1980.

Local athletes did the running. Sand got into the camera and scratched the film, so the crew came back a week later and shot it again in rougher water. A plaque by the beach marks the spot.

See Old Course at St Andrews · Fife

True or false18 hours ago

True or false: Mary Queen of Scots is recorded playing golf a few days after her husband was murdered.

Did you know18 hours ago

Three Prime Ministers, Asquith, Balfour and Ramsay MacDonald, played holiday golf at Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth before the First World War.

On at least one day, in August 1913, the three of them played together.

See Moray Golf Club · Morayshire

Quiz17 hours ago

In 1815 a golfer bet a gallon of whisky that he could hit a ball from Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh over Arthur's Seat. How many strokes did it take?

From the magazine17 hours ago

At Kingarrock, near Cupar in Fife, golfers play a nine-hole golf course with original hickory-shafted clubs from the early 20th century.

Golf with hickory-shafted clubs, known as hickory golf, is the traditional form of the game, a world away from today's titanium and graphite clubs. Its fans argue that it brings more 'feel' into the swing. The nine-hole golf course at Kingarrock is given over entirely to the older game, and every golfer is handed five original clubs from the early 20th century to play with. The golf balls are replicas of the balls of the same era.

See Kingarrock Hickory Golf · Fife

Today16 hours ago

PerthshireGolf at iconic golf coursesActivity

PerthshireGolf at MurrayshallActivity

PerthshireCrieff Golf ClubActivity

PerthshireAuchterarder Golf ClubActivity

StirlingshireDunblane New Golf ClubAttraction

A day for the links.

5° and clear: the sort of afternoon the coast courses were laid out for.

See all the courses

Did you know16 hours ago

Frank Sinatra went out to Carnoustie Golf Links in 1953 to watch the American golfer Ben Hogan play the Open.

He was in Dundee for a concert and followed the second day's play. Hogan went on to win, in the only Open Championship he ever entered.

See Carnoustie Golf Links · Angus

Did you know15 hours ago

The golfers of Dunbar set down their rules on 14 May 1794 and agreed to meet at the West Barns links on the second Wednesday of every month.

The links were soon taken over for military training and a rifle range during the wars with France, and golf there faded for decades.

See Dunbar Golf Course · Lothian

True or false15 hours ago