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A fairway bordered by bunkers overlooking rocky coastline and the sea
Fife

Crail Golfing Society

A golf club since 1786, and Balcomie is par 69 over 5,861 yards. The first holes run down from the clubhouse to the shore at Fife Ness.

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Welcome

Crail's golf is at the eastern tip of Fife, on the rocky shore at Fife Ness with nothing beyond it but the North Sea.

Crail Golfing Society was founded in 1786, one of the oldest golf clubs in the world, and its two links sit a couple of miles past the town. Balcomie is the old one, laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1895, and it's short and full of character, with the wind and the rocks there on almost every hole. Craighead, the newer course, opened in 1998. Afterwards, the clubhouse bar looks down over the 18th green from its rocky perch, and St Andrews is only 12 miles away.

A sandstone boathouse with white doors standing on a grassy bank beside the sea
Crail's lifeboat house of 1884, on the Balcomie links.Press a mark to look closer.
The card

18 holes. Par 69 and 5,861 yards from the white tees, down to 5,207 from the red.

Crail Golfing Society
Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
NameBoathouseOwer the KnoweThe BriggsFluke DubHell's HoleWormistonNorth CarrBreeches BuoyDykesideCastle YettsLang WhangThe BurnCraigheadThe CaveMill DamSpion KopRoad HoleThe Quarry
White3224931773544471883464193063,0523364945252141472641624622052,8095,861
Yellow3134511683154391722734162502,7972874275172071412541574171982,6055,402
Red3054401552744271612644092462,6812734215142011322451524001882,5265,207
Par453443444354553343433469
Women's par453453444364554343533672
Stroke index155139111731761410216181248
Women's stroke index751391171131584214161810612
Score

The holes tinted yellow are the highlights below. Press one to read about it.

Hole highlights

Old Tom Morris laid out nine holes here in 1895 and came back to make it eighteen in 1900. Every hole has a name, and most are named after something beside it.

  1. 1

    Boathouse

    Par 4 · 322 yards

    The round opens by heading down towards the sea. The hole is named after Crail's old lifeboat house of 1884, which still stands on the course, and the club's advice is to keep left and miss the big bunker in front of the green.

  2. 5

    Hell's Hole

    Par 4 · 447 yards

    The hardest hole on the card. From the tee you decide how much of the rocky bay to carry, and the name comes from that stretch of rocks on the beach, not from the golf.

  3. 13

    Craighead

    Par 3 · 214 yards

    A long par three uphill to a green you can't see from the tee, and the second hardest hole on the card. Michael Murphy wrote it into his book Golf in the Kingdom.

  4. 14

    The Cave

    Par 3 · 147 yards

    A short hole from the top of the cliff down to a two-level green, with a sleeper-faced bunker in front and the beach on the right. Beside it is Constantine's Cave, where local tradition says a king of Scots was killed fighting the Danes.

  5. 18

    The Quarry

    Par 3 · 205 yards

    A long par three to finish, named after the old quarry on the right, with the clubhouse on the rock above it. The club's advice is to turn round on the tee first and take in the view.

Playing here

Old Tom Morris's Balcomie links on the rocky shore at Fife Ness, home to a golf club founded at Crail in 1786.

Holes
18
Par
69
Yards
5,861
Founded
1786
Balcomie opened
1895

Booking

01333 450686

Online for up to four players; groups of five or more by email. Tee times for 2027 are open online.

Green fees, 2026

  • Balcomie, May to September£170
  • April£110
  • January to March, and October£90
  • November and December£70
  • Day ticket, both courses, May to September£240

To hire

  • Caddie, paid in cash£80
  • Clubs£45
  • Power trolley£20
  • Push trolley£6
  • Buggy, if you need one or are 70 and over£45

The clubhouse

The restaurant and bar sit high above the 18th green, open to golfers with a tee time.

A nine-bay driving range and a short-game area beside the first tees.

Did you know

Crail Golfing Society, among the oldest golf clubs in the world, fined two of its former captains in 1793 for playing in green jackets.

The year before, the club had made scarlet jackets with yellow buttons its uniform. Playing in any other colour cost a member half a mutchkin of punch, an old Scots measure.

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Where it is

The clubhouse is at Fife Ness, Crail, KY10 3XN, about two miles north-east of the town, and the last stretch of road is single track.

St Andrews is 12 miles away, Leuchars is the nearest station, and Edinburgh is about an hour and a half by car.

Directions
Wooden ladder rises through a stone dovecote's spiralling nesting boxes to daylight aboveAttractionsThe Priory Doocot, Crail1.7 miles
Fishing boats moored in Crail harbour beneath rows of white and orange-roofed cottagesAttractionsCrail1.9 miles
Woman in red dress stands beneath "The Beehive Crail" shop signShoppingThe Beehive, Crail1.9 miles
Whitewashed cottage with blue door, steps up to Crail Pottery, sign reading "OpenShoppingCrail Pottery1.9 miles
Aerial view of a walled garden with circular hedge maze and vegetable plotsAttractionsCambo Gardens2.0 miles
Coffee, a cappuccino and a square of tablet on a wooden table in the tearoom's courtyard, with blue fencing, pot plants and the sea beyond.CafeCrail Harbour Gallery and Tearoom2.0 miles
Cooked lobster halves on a white plate atop a wooden picnic tableRestaurantsReilly and Sons Lobster Hut2.0 miles
Military green truck towing a missile launcher on a grass vergeAttractionsScotland's Secret Bunker4.0 miles
Anstruther Fish Bar's blue frontage, marked winner of Takeaway of the YearRestaurantsAnstruther Fish Bar5.7 miles
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More golf

More courses in Fife, and the collections this one is in.

A course · St AndrewsOld Course at St AndrewsCollectionThe Oldest Golf Courses in ScotlandCollectionThe Best Golf Courses in ScotlandCollectionThe Old Tom Morris Trail
Golf in FifeAll our golf
Find out more

For further reading, before you go.