Shetland Golf Club – Eighteen Holes Above Dales Voe
A day.
The route
Shetland Golf Club's course runs along a quiet green valley at Dale, a few miles from Lerwick, with sweeping views down to Dales Voe and one of the most northerly rounds in the UK.
It's a friendly, community-run club where visitors are always welcome, and you can pay at the honesty box. Play in the morning, then come back into Lerwick for lunch by the water at Mareel.
Before you go
Book a tee time on Shetland Golf Club's online booking system before you go, for a morning round between April and October, or pay at the clubhouse honesty box in cash: a day's golf is £35 at the time of writing, and hire clubs (£15) and trolleys (£5) are cash only, first come, first served.
The day
Shetland
Eighteen holes in a green valley above Dales Voe, then a late lunch on Lerwick's waterfront.
About five and a half hours
Shetland Golf Club
Shetland Golf Club's course is at Dale, a few miles west of Lerwick, and you park by the clubhouse. Visitors are always welcome: book a tee time on the club's online booking system before you go, or pay at the clubhouse honesty box, which takes cash only. A day's golf is £35 from April to October at the time of writing, with no reduction for part rounds, and juniors under 18 pay £10. Hire clubs are £15 a set and trolleys £5, cash in the honesty box, first come, first served. Pay before you play and display the bag tag, as tags are checked. It's 18 holes and about 5,600 yards from the yellow tees, par 68, with burns (streams) and ditches to carry and sweeping views over Dales Voe. Allow about four hours.
11 min by car
Mareel
Lunch
Lunch is back in Lerwick, 11 minutes' drive east, at Mareel, the arts centre and cinema on the corner of Hay's Dock. Its café bar looks out over the water, where you may see seals, and serves locally made sandwiches, wraps and salads, with cakes and hot drinks. It's open from 10am, Tuesday to Sunday, and shut on Mondays, with full step-free access. It closes now and then for a private event, so look at its social media first. If it's shut, the Peerie Shop Café, behind the Peerie Shop near the Market Cross, does homemade soup and pies until 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
If it rains
In heavy rain, the club's two indoor golf simulators keep the game going under a roof, at £11 an hour a person (up to four to a bay); a first visit needs an induction, arranged by email before booking. Mareel is indoors.
Photographs by Martin Kime and Colin Keldie via Google