Main photo: Kings Golf Club
SCOTTISH journalist Gordon Bannerman joined friends to take in Inverness, Ullapool and Durness on a memorable trip through Golf Highland country.
YOU never know quite what you’ll see teeing-up a trip in the Scottish Highlands.
Eye-catching scenery and an abundance of wildlife are par for the course, if you’ll excuse the pun.
Recent diversions on golfing trips in the north of Scotland have included the occasional deer straying into the line of fire, spotting an iconic red squirrel scampering along a tree branch and the road drill rhythm of a woodpecker echoing across the fairway.
Anyone who has taken to the links at Lossiemouth’s Moray Golf Club has been distracted by the raucous roar of fighter jetstaking flight and landing at the adjacent RAF base. It’s quite a sight.
Golfers at “bucket list” lures like Royal Dornoch often spot helicopters coming in to land within a mid-iron of the first tee.
But it’s not often you are treated to a fly-past by the celebrated Red Arrows.
During a recent, three courses lads’ trip taking in the Kings Golf Club in Inverness and the nine-hole West Coast delights of Ullapool and award-winning Durness, the legendary formation flying team provided an unexpected treat high above the Highland capital.
It would have made for an ideal candidate for this summer’s Golf Highland Photographic Competition – and a chance to tee-up with chums at the likes of Royal Dornoch, Cabot Highlands and Nairn – but these guys don’t hang about. By the time I’d fished the phone from the bag they were dots in the distance.
Still, fine views over Inverness, a nearby hilltop said to have been the fortress of Pictish Kings – hence the club’s name – and the Moray Firth, from higher vantage points compensated for a brief sighting of the elite flyers.
Remarkably, the welcoming clubhouse overlooking the first tee and water-fringed 18th green, and the vast majority of the 18 holes on this Championship quality course, were unveiled by former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher just six years ago.
It has been a welcome addition to the wide-ranging Golf Highland offering as extended golfing breaks in and around Inverness are becoming increasingly popular.
While most visiting parties to the area tend to take their pick from a host of renowned links within easy striking distance of the Highland capital, we were making the 60-mile road trip to the whitewashed picture postcard port of Ullapool.
The beauty of golf in the Highlands is that there’s something to suit everyone, and every pocket.
Community clubs like Ullapool, and delightful Durness another 60 miles away on the North Coast 500 route, are welcoming and modestly priced for visitors. The scenery is a bonus.
Time your round right at Ullapool and you’ll spot the distinctive Cal-Mac Stornoway ferry ploughing through Loch Broom whileyou’re tackling a stretch of coastal holes, including the stand-out second named after the imposing serrated sandstone slab of An Teallach.
On a fine day, Durness, hailed back-to-back as Scotland’s top nine-hole course, rewards intrepid travellers prepared to make the trek to the remote, northwest corner of Scotland.
Best leave at least two hours for the journey from Ullapool, factoring in time for photo ops among the most spectacular, mountain-studded landscape while navigating a stretch of single road carriageway and the summer stream of camper vans, Porsches and Lamborghinis.
When the sun shines, if there’s a more picturesque backdrop for back-to-basics links golf anywhere in the UK than Durness, do let me know.
In one direction, vast stretches of wave washed Caribbean-like beaches and turquoise tinged waters; in another, floral carpeted machair, moorland and mountains framing holes which look as if they’ve been there forever and a day, rather than 1988.
A word of warning, if the wind machine is cranked up, best pack a few golf balls!
There’s a Par 5 risk and reward inland lochan to negotiate, the occasional blind shot, an infinity green hugging the cliffs and tee shots on the Par 3 ninth/18th which, I can confirm, require a reload if they are left, or short, of the split-level green.
The only thing missing from an unforgettable day? A flypast by the Red Arrows!
