A Week in E Lothian and Northumberland: Bamburgh Castle - WOW

[John Mayhugh]

 With Buda being contested in Northumberland, Edinburgh was the easiest place to fly to. Jason Topp and I shared a car, and saw a good variety of courses during the week.
 
Jason picked me up at the EDI airport on Monday of Buda week, and we headed straight to the course. I cannot sleep on a plane (unless someone’s paying for lie flat seats), and I’ve found the best way to adjust to the time change is to get out and walk in the fresh air. Kilspindie is only 40 minutes or so from the airport, and seemed an ideal choice. The course has been expertly profiled already.
http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/scotland/kilspindie000140/
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,66109.0.html
 
 
This sight outside of the clubhouse confirmed we had made a good choice.
IMG_2036 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
As did this view of the 1^st
DSC01578 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Early in the round, you don’t feel like you could be any closer to the beach without playing on it. You wouldn’t expect to need a ladder here, but one dune provided blindness for the tee shot. Seems a bit early in the round to need a bench, but it faces the beach and who could argue with taking that in for a few minutes?
DSC01581 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
The 4^th is maybe the best hole on the course, with a green site to be admired.
DSC01590 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Your line on the par 3 7^th requires a bit of trust for the wind to bring the ball in from the beach. With the wind we had, there wasn’t any doubt on that.
DSC01600 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
This screen protecting houses on the right was one of the odder sights I’ve seen. It had trees printed on it to help it blend in a bit better, but as you looked closer, you got an entire forest scene which seemed more like the US. I think this could have been a terrific hole originally – still a good one.
DSC01602 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
One has several chances to interact with a stone wall on the back 9, none more attractively than the 13^th.
 
DSC01606 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
5200 yards seemed like plenty of golf course in the wind that we had. I expected Kilspindie to play easier than it did, but should have known better. The best holes are on the front nine, though the course remains interesting and challenging throughout. One negative - it took us nearly four hours to get around. This was thanks to two slow moving groups in front of us, and no one in front of them.
 
 
 
 
For the afternoon, we headed south to Dunbar. Both Jason and I were really keen to see this course, and for good reason.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,64305.0.html
 
 
The pro shop is awkwardly sited. You have to walk behind the third green and then the first tee to get to it. Neither the 1^st nor 2^nd are anything special, but hard not to get excited by the backdrop of the 3^rd (also a very good green there).
DSC01619 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
DSC01628 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
A warning as you cross through an opening the wall. The beach is very rocky.
DSC01620 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
Simple but clever green complexes.
DSC01639 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
DSC01641 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
The 7^th ticks a lot of boxes. Stone wall, boathouse, terrific green that runs away from approach, gorgeous view, and a bell. One of the most memorable holes of my trip.
DSC01647 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
DSC01653 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
An obligatory blind tee shot on the 9^th. Check out Sean’s tour to see what happens after.
DSC01657 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Sublime setting for the 12^th. A lot going on with this long (440 yards) hole.
DSC01674 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
A really odd way to inform of the day’s hole location on the 13^th – the green is sunken below the fairway. Also may have been tampered with.

DSC01676 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
DSC01679 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
We enjoyed Dunbar immensely. While it’s not one of the big names, Dunbar has many fine holes, and the setting elevates it even more. When this is the first day of a trip, you wonder how much better can life get?
 
After a quick dinner at an Indian place in Dunbar, we headed “home” for the next few nights.
IMG_2086 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 

[David_Tepper]

John -
Great pics. Thanks.
For those of us not in the know, what is the name of your hotel?
DT

[Thomas Dai]

Splendid John. Looking forward to the rest.
Atb

[John Mayhugh]

John -
Great pics. Thanks.
For those of us not in the know, what is the name of your hotel?
DT

Sorry - it's Greywalls.https://greywalls.co.uk/

[Sean_A]

Tucky

You are probably the only guy I know that I would completely trust with selecting courses for a trip. I hear you don't my driving as well. That's a bonus.

Ciao

[John Mayhugh]

Sean,Thanks. It helps that my UK trips are mostly going places your posts have inspired interest in.

[John Mayhugh]

 On Wednesday morning, we went 1.5 hours south to play one of the big names on every visitor’s list – Alnmouth Village.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65709.0.html
 
 
The fully stocked pro shop.
IMG_2106 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
We had booked online, and arrived to find a dozen or so members walking the fairways filling divots. We had a brief delay at the 3^rd waiting for them to pass, and it provided time to admire the setting. The beach is close by.
DSC01709 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
A road to the beach cuts through the course here.
 
DSC01711 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Loved this boathouse at the 3^rd tee.
DSC01712 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Several greens seemed to be approachable from either direction – maybe more easily so from behind. I’ll never complain about a green that runs away from the direction of play – one of the game’s most underutilized features.
DSC01708 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
The 5^th green makes good use of the humps and bumps leading there.
DSC01724 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
The all-world 6^th,assuming you don’t mind a bit of quirk. The hole is only 290, and seemingly straight uphill.
DSC01727 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Once you find the fairway, the adventure has only begun. This is a volcano green!
DSC01729 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
The less thrilling Alnmouth Golf Club is across the fence. They may think we are mad for enjoying this hole so much.
DSC01731 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
That climb is only for a single hole, but the view for the 7^th tee shot is a bonus.
DSC01735 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
Imagine having Alnmouth Village as your home. 9 holes of this quality in 1.5 hours, and a nice place to sit down for drinks or a meal after. Heaven. Courses like this make me eternally grateful to Sean Arble for his introduction of them.
 IMG_2104 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Just a few miles away, another 9 holer - Warkworth - awaited us.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65712.0.html
 
 
We paid at an honor box, and headed out just in front of a group of seniors. I honestly cannot imagine riding a one person cart down this hill as several of them seemed prepared to do.
DSC01744 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Loads of humps and bumps on the 2^nd. The best ground at Warkworth comes early.
DSC01747 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
The 3^rd goes up the hill again, and it’s a fine hole, challenging you to pick the right line across the bracken.
DSC01749 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
DSC01751 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Another daunting tee shot at the 5^th. Attractive too.
DSC01759 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
The bridge we saw on the 5^th spans this path to the beach.
DSC01768 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Warkworth was clearly a notch below Alnmouth Village in quality, but holes like the 2^nd and 3^rd made me happy we had made the stop.
 
 
After Warkworth, we continued our seemingly silly day of driving with a 45 minute trip further south to visit The Northumberland Golf Club. This is Mark Pearce’s home club, and I had wanted to see it for several years. Mark hosted several of us in the rain. I’ve played around 100 rounds of golf in the UK over the years, and the two-plus hours of rain we had on this afternoon is the most I’ve ever had to deal with. So I’m not complaining. The one disappointment is that due to the rain, I didn’t get many pictures of the course. Still, hopefully I can give some impression of it.
 
The Northumberland is located on the same property as Newcastle Racecourse, which conducts both flat and jump racing. Most of the course is located inside the track, so on race meetings (60 per year according to the website), golf must take a back seat. Fortunately, the lights we see suggest mornings would still work. Note: they have a race meeting on Friday, so tune into TVG and get a look.
 
The 1^st hole takes us right up to the track.
IMG_2115 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
A solution for broken tees that I have never seen before.
IMG_2112 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Crossing over to the main part of the course. The track is Tapeta – an all weather subsitute for sand/dirt.
IMG_2121 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
Rig and furrow fairways hint at a past use of the land. I was interested to learn that the planting was done on the ridge (rig), not the furrow, as this provided better drainage.
IMG_2124 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
My first close up look at a jump racing hedge. Dick Francis would be proud.
IMG_2127 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
The 6^th was a memorable hole. A dogleg right, it curves right around a cluster of trees, while the fairway tilts left. The green is well bunkered for approaches that don’t do what you expect from the sidehill.
 
IMG_2134 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Not a typical tee shot view.
IMG_2143 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
One of our group pulled his tee shot left onto an unusual hazard. Never found the ball. Hopefully a horse doesn’t either.
IMG_2149 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
There are some troublesome bunkers.
IMG_2153 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
The last would be a better hole with fewer trees. Very tough finish to an elevated green.
IMG_2156 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Hard to really assess The Northumberland given the conditions we played in. Doak’s 3 makes me feel like he didn’t see much of the course, as it seems considerably better than that to me. Well worth a visit, and in our case, a significant detour. 
 

[Jason Topp]

Thanks for these John.  That was the quintessential day with Mayhugh.  I knew I was tired on the drive back when I drove through a small town utilizing the right side of the road, John kept telling me I was on the wrong side but my brain suggested there was nothing wrong with the situation. 

Here are a couple of Alnmouth:


Looking back at 4 (I am guessing):

Scotland/Northumberland by Jason Topp, on Flickr

Looking back at 5:


Scotland/Northumberland by Jason Topp, on Flickr
Humps and bumps:

Scotland/Northumberland by Jason Topp, on Flickr






Muldoon playing under a rainbow at Northumberland.  Doak must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed there.  I liked the course very much.



Scotland/Northumberland by Jason Topp, on Flickr

[John Mayhugh]

Jason,
To be fair, on a couple of those roads, there barely was a distinction between left and right side.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Tucky

You are probably the only guy I know that I would completely trust with selecting courses for a trip. I hear you don't my driving as well. That's a bonus.

Ciao

Yes indeed, except he's not Topp at driving.  I'll bring the wheels because I know I'm the only person you'd completely trust to pick the soundtrack.


After all we wouldn't want a clash or to feel blue.


Sounds great to me...I




PS John you've excelled yourself with this bunch.

[Thomas Dai]

Jason,
To be fair, on a couple of those roads, there barely was a distinction between left and right side.

Just wait until you turn into the ‘roads’ that lead to Welshpool and Kington next Sept!
Atb

[John Mayhugh]

Jason,
To be fair, on a couple of those roads, there barely was a distinction between left and right side.

Just wait until you turn into the ‘roads’ that lead to Welshpool and Kington next Sept!
Atb

Jason & I played Kington before the Wales Buda in 2010. His only other Buda, and he drove that time too. He found the area roads memorable.P1000004 by john mayhugh, on Flickr

[Tony_Muldoon]

 IMG_2104 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 

John The centre of that sign reminds me of my trip to Brancaster all those years ago.


I'd booked to play on my own and the day before on a whim I called back to see how they felt about visitors bringing dogs?


 The Secretary replied


 "We love well behaved dogs here, and you wouldn't bring a badly behaved dog would you Sir?"








Jason I'd forgotten that shot. Nice reminder.




It's a shame the rain came at Northumberland GC, the course played more "linksy" than half the links I've played this year. Even with the rain it played really well.
Good Colt holes , I recall some fine Par 3's. 
Time for the Tin Man to brave the elements with his camera? An unheralded gem.


Literally minutes off the A1 for folks looking to break the journey to Scotland.

[John Mayhugh]

John The centre of that sign reminds me of my trip to Brancaster all those years ago.


I'd booked to play on my own and the day before on a whim I called back to see how they felt about visitors bringing dogs?


 The Secretary replied


 "We love well behaved dogs here, and you wouldn't bring a badly behaved dog would you Sir?"

That's a great memory.

[Tom_Doak]

Muldoon playing under a rainbow at Northumberland.  Doak must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed there.  I liked the course very much.
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I sometimes feel bad for some of my low ratings from the fall of 1982.  They all came on the heels of two months in St Andrews, a week at Dornoch, and two weeks in and around North Berwick; the courses of Northumberland were not the equal of those, and it was difficult to put numbers to them, five years later.


Plus there were no rainbows for me those few days, it was grisly and wet all the way down to Yorkshire.


I'd love to go back to Alnmouth Village one day.  That and about 600 other places!

[Jason Topp]

Jason,
To be fair, on a couple of those roads, there barely was a distinction between left and right side.

Just wait until you turn into the ‘roads’ that lead to Welshpool and Kington next Sept!
Atb

Jason & I played Kington before the Wales Buda in 2010. His only other Buda, and he drove that time too. He found the area roads memorable.P1000004 by john mayhugh, on Flickr

I have dubbed roads like that "Mayhughs"

[Jason Topp]

Muldoon playing under a rainbow at Northumberland.  Doak must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed there.  I liked the course very much.

I sometimes feel bad for some of my low ratings from the fall of 1982.  They all came on the heels of two months in St Andrews, a week at Dornoch, and two weeks in and around North Berwick; the courses of Northumberland were not the equal of those, and it was difficult to put numbers to them, five years later.

I understand.  I look at my magazine rating history and cringe at times. Fortunately, I did not publish them.   

[Sean_A]

Jason & I played Kington before the Wales Buda in 2010. His only other Buda, and he drove that time too. He found the area roads memorable.P1000004 by john mayhugh, on Flickr

On more than one ocassion our 60 seat coach was not able to make it around the final bend into the club without bottoming out.  On more than a few ocassions our coach forced cars backwards (both up and down the hill).  It was great entertainment to watch it all unfold from on high.  Its all part of Kington's magic.

Ciao

[Mike Sweeney]

Beautiful post John, and Sean.


Not sure I will ever see these unique spots, but I really do appreciate the effort.

[Marty Bonnar]

Beautiful post John, and Sean.


Not sure I will ever see these unique spots, but I really do appreciate the effort.

Get your too-tall ass over here and we’ll make it happen.
Love,
F.

[John Mayhugh]

 North Berwick is a course that has been well chronicled here. It’s rightfully on a must see list, and we played 36 here on a perfect day.
http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/scotland/northberwick1/
 
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,59363.0.html
 
 
Most photo tours leave off the practice area by the 1^st tee.
IMG_2173 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
It’s a good idea to hit a few warmup shots. The 1^st is a place you want to hit a good tee shot, as the approach can get complicated.
 
IMG_2190 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
As I mentioned on another thread, the ladders to the beach on 2 are no more. Replaced by rock. If you want to play from the beach, the tee shot needs to be further offline.
nb 2 may 19 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
In the morning round, Mr. Malone found a spot of bother at the Pit, but recovered nicely.
IMG_2180 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
IMG_2181 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
I had a chance to try the same sort of shot in the afternoon, but couldn’t make it over the wall. Until my 3^rd. Putting through the opening was out of the question – I wasn’t accurate enough for that.
IMG_2195 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
IMG_2196 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
Hard to argue with the name of this hole.
IMG_2184 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
16’s green looks terrific from any angle.
IMG_2199 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
IMG_2187 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
IMG_2186 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
North Berwick is easily one of my favorites, though not above criticism. Why do they keep narrowing the course? In addition to the first cut of rough (tolerable, I guess), there’s just too much of the deeper stuff. We seemed to spend more time looking for balls here than at any other course we played. The course would defend itself just fine with some more width. Hopefully this approach changes.
 
But to end on a positive, the course hard by the sea and the town offers everything one could want in golf. I can’t wait to return.
 
 
 
After North Berwick, we headed south to Bamburgh to be ready for Buda on Friday. I rented an apartment that had a most unusual feature – a coin box for electricity. Pay as you go!
IMG_2204 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
 
 
 
Bamburgh is an attractive town of 400ish people. It’s dominated by Bamburgh Castle. Of course, like many of my trips, no time to view the other sights close up.
DSC01903 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
IMG_2242 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
The view from the castle.
DSC01901 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
A war memorial at the base. One sees these all over Britain, and I appreciate the reminder.
IMG_2243 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
St. Aidan’s Church, which dates to the 12^th century, seemed to be welcoming to all.
IMG_2239 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 
 
IMG_2240 by john mayhugh, on Flickr
 

[Jeff Schley]

Is this thread not setting a new high bar for posting of a golf trip?  Well done John, well done.

[John Mayhugh]

Jeff,
You're being overly kind. If posts like mine encourage someone to seek out a lesser known course like The Northumberland, I'll be very pleased.

[Jason Topp]

He can post photos and is an athlete:


Scotland/Northumberland by Jason Topp, on Flickr

[Kalen Braley]

John,

Jeff is spot on, I too love your posting style, quirk and all.

P.S.  Still having a hard time understanding how that one shot is actually a road.  Looks like even two small cars couldn't squeeze thru side by side.  They must have lots of pullouts!