Durness

[Gary Daughters]

Has anyone ventured to the tip of the Scottish Highlands to play this course?

Pictures?

I have made contact with the club on several occasions but the impression I get is that they've had enough of writers imposing on them.

As a writer I think it's an interesting story, how a handul of guys got together and built themselves a golf course.  I'd like to know how it happened, because I'm sure it's an interesting story.

And realizing that land use provisions are dramatically different in Scotland than here, it does dovetail with my own dream of building my own modest golf course one day.

Thanks,
Gary

[Brad Klein]

Gary,

played there 2x, both in 50 mph howlers. It's lovely, remote, not great golf but a great place for any golf. Don't worry about no one answering. When we were last there in Sept. 2003, the demented housekeeper of a clubhouse woman who ran the thing looked like Kathy Bates w/o thorazine and was only slightly less coherent. Something about "the wind had beaten up the brains of her husband and herself."

Is the drive to Durness worth it? Absolutely, so long as you are into pilgrimages. There's other golf around there, to the east, but it's not as crazed or as wind-beaten as Durness' 9-hole track. Make the trek, even w/o reservations. You can always leave 20 Pounds in the box by the door.

[Tom Jefferson]

If you're really into the journey, take the ferry from John O' Groats (east of Durness), to Orkney, and play the 13 hole course west of the village of Stromness.  Deepest rough I have ever seen.......waist high fescue, thick and tangled, and wind to flatten any shot.  Like Durness, wild, remote, raw.

Tom

[ForkaB]

Gary

It's been written about before, but I can't remember where.  The trip itself to Durness is vaut le detour--it's probably where they faked the Moon landings.  Visit the Smoo Caves while you're there, too.  And, as Brad implied, the fact that they haven't answered your letters is not your fault--the Highlanders have a different sense of time and importance than thee and me.

[Marty Bonnar]

'faked the moon landings'. As if!
Another Goodale classic...

Durness is also home to many fine luvverly limestone lochs full of MASSIVE wild Brown Trout.

I MUST get meeself up to that magnificent landscape. Did you ever feel that maybe you live in a Country but insist on travelling elsewhere for holidays? WHY?

FBD.

[Tags:]

Tags: