Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, and Northern Ireland Golf Vacation
Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Rosapenna, Portmarnock, Portstewart, Ballyliffin, Castlerock, and County Louth
Hopping Along the Antrim Coast
For along time golf in Northern Ireland equalled RCD and Portrush, plus Portstewart for those ‘who knew’. The redesign of Rosapenna’s St Patricks Links, allied to a lesser extent by the emergence of Ballyliffin’s Glashedy Course, has gate crashed the party. Three of Ireland’s top six courses are now to be found in the geographic north. This puts the region on at least a par with Scotland’s most prestigious, and indeed eclipses many if we land in Dublin and utilise Portmarnock.
Northern Ireland also has a better non-golf offer than many regions, albeit it can be darker in its mood. This is the coastline of mythical giants, castles, magical causeways, and ‘Game of Thrones’, and that’s before we visit Belfast for ill-fated luxury liners or the ‘political history’. We shouldn’t of course overlook that playing Portmarnock on Sunday allows us to include Dublin as a dedicated non-golf day either were we to come in 24 hrs earlier
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The Itinerary
Sunday – Portmarnock
Monday – Royal County Down (Battle of the Boyne)
Tuesday – Castlerock (Belfast)
Wednesday – Portstewart (Giants Causeway)
Thursday – Royal Portrush (Carrick u Rede ropebridge)
Friday – Ballyliffin
Saturday – Rosapenna
Sunday – County Louth
We’re assuming that most overseas visitors will land in Dublin, in which case it would be churlish not to include Portmarnock out, and County Louth back. If we choose to fly via London however, then we can shorten up the mileage by landing in Belfast. This would likely involving losing the two courses named, but would permit us to hop further along the northern coast, possibly getting as far as Enniscrone
Sunday - Portmarnock
With a rich history closely aligned to the progression of golf in Ireland, Portmarnock has hosted numerous Irish Open Championships, the Walker Cup, Irish Amateur Championships and the British Amateur Championship, and the rumour that it’s being lined up as the next course to be introduced to the Open rotation doesn’t look like dying down (we think this one has legs)
From Sam Snead to Seve Ballesteros, some of golf’s best-known names have tested their skills against this majestic narrow tongue of shallow dunes-land, just north of Dublin.
Considered by many as one of the fairest links courses in the world it delivers an incredible challenge and true test of golf.
Perhaps five-time Open Championship winner Tom Watson summed up the links best during his visits saying, “There are no tricks or nasty surprises, only an honest, albeit searching test of shot making skills.”
Monday - Royal County Down
Periodically Royal County Down can displace the likes of Pine Creek or Cyprus Point as the world’s highest rated golf course (its that good).
It is framed in one of the most stunningly natural links settings in golf. The Murlough Nature Reserve provides the stage, the magnificent Mourne mountains the backdrop. The narrowest ribbons of fairways thread their way through as impressive a set of sand dunes as could be imagined. The fairways are surrounded by purple heather and golden gorse, so beautiful to look at, but so punishing for any who may stray from the prescribed path. The ‘bearded’ bunkers are world famous, featuring overhanging lips of marram, red fescue and heather. The greens are fast and many are domed, rejecting any shot lacking conviction.
The ninth hole is one of the most photographed holes in world golf, a 486 yard par 4, it is played from one side of a huge mound down to a fairway some 60 ft below and 260 yards from the tee. From the bottom of the slope the second shot is played over two bunkers to a raised green.
Tuesday - Castlerock
Castlerock, is a classic links course set amid towering dunes on the Causeway coast and only a 20 minute drive from both Royal Portrush and Portstewart,
Castlerock is a more than worthy neighbour to both of these great Irish links. Castlerock is rated as one of Ireland’s finest links courses and its status reflected by the fact that it has hosted many National Championships both Amateur and Professional.
Perhaps spurred by the success of Portstewart and Ballyliffin in recently hosting the Irish Open, Castlerock has begun moves to host the event and join the select bracket of courses that eat at the top-table
Castlerock would be a candidate to omit however if our ambitions stretched further west along the coastline
Wednesday - Portstewart
On a coastline famed for its giants, Portstewart’s Strand Course is ‘the sleeping one’, erroneously overlooked alongside the two Ulster Royals of Portrush and County Down.
It was the brainchild of Willie Park Jr and Des Giffin, who used the natural gifted undulating dunes, the run off bunkers, rolling fairways and tricky manicured greens to create a course that stands in similar company.
A ‘true test of golf’ is a much overused phrase, but in this case it is a reflection of the variety and ingenuity of the shots required to get round this masterpiece of a golf course. The views from almost every hole are quite simply, magical. The Atlantic is never very far away and the beauty of the course has to be seen to be believed. It is a treat that will take a very long time, to fade from the golfers memory.
The Strand Course hosted the 2017 Irish Open. Jon Rahm won but the links left an impression on him, “the golf course is amazing. It’s probably one of the most beautiful golf courses I have ever seen, if not the most”.
Thursday - Royal Portrush
Royal Portrush is constructed on an area of natural dune land framed by limestone cliffs. The Open was held here in 1951, and won by Max Faulkner. In 2019 it returned, Shane Lowry playing the elements best of all to prove a popular local(ish) winner, whilst Scottie Scheffler obliged in 2025 (note how quickly the R&A came back!)
The Dunluce Links is home to one of the most stunning par fours in golf, the 411 yard 5th hole. A dogleg hole played from an elevated tee towards the ocean, it rewards the daring shot across a wide expanse of rough. An overly long approach shot will end up on the sand of the White Rocks beach which lies just beyond the rear of the green however. Carnage!
Calamity Corner, the 210 yard par 3 16th hole is the other feature hole. Between the tee and the green is a yawning chasm, which must be cleared to stand any chance of making your three. This is a score wrecker coming at a decisive moment in the round.
Friday - Ballyliffin
Ballyliffin is the most northerly course in Ireland (depsite being in the political south). The Glashedy is something of a lucky accident. Pat Ruddy was invited to visit Ballyliffin with the view to improving their bunkering, but on seeing the 400 acres laid out in front of him he quickly realised the club were asking the wrong question. “Forget about bunkering the links you have,” he recalls saying, “let’s build a world beating second links. We can get back to bunkering and your existing links later.”
The Glashedy routing is intertwined with the Old course, the holes weaving their way through the wild dunes. It’s a supremely challenging golf course which stretches out more than 7,200 yards, with nine brutal par fours in excess of 400 yards. You need to be on top of your game to play to handicap. The huge greens, with some frightening undulations, are well protected by bunkers; three putting can be alarmingly frequent.
In 2018 Ballyliffin hosted the Irish Open (won by Russell Knox) which is further evidence of its elevation in status
Saturday - Rosapenna
Rosapenna, and the recently renovated St Patricks course suddenly leapt up the rankings from seemingly nowhere to rank behind Ballybunion and Lahinch, vying with Portmarnock (and overtaking it on some lists) for third place. Why? Well the answer is Tom Doak and completely new design
The St Patrick’s Links is routed in an adjoining dune system just south of the existing two courses at Rosapenna. Doak has fashioned 18 unrecognisable and unforgettable holes over the same tract of land. The result? A sprawling links that is destined to become a modern great and one which is drawing comparison with Barnbougle Dunes.
It sits on the most magnificent piece of links land – huge scale and scenery, with enough variety in dimension to present a real diversity of golf holes. The routing takes golfers on a journey through huge dunes, to high above Sheephaven Bay, along the coast, then back over some more gentle dunes… and that’s just the front nine! With plenty of width and an eclectic mix of naturalised bunkers, the course is unlike anything in the UK & Ireland.
Sunday - County Louth
More affectionately known as ‘Baltray’, County Louth is a links course of the highest pedigree. With a spectacular layout it regularly ranks in top 10 courses in Ireland
The championship links are known for providing one of the purest and fairest tests of links golf in the world. For professional golfer and former Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley, this is his favourite links course in Ireland, remarking: “It’s just a great test. All the holes run in different directions, so you have a different exam paper on each hole”.
In 2004 and 2009 County Louth Golf Club hosted the European Tour’s Irish Open. On the latter occasion, the club was etched into Irish golfing history when it famously became the venue where 2019 Open Champion Shane Lowry won the Irish Open as an Amateur.
Featured Group
Do I put something about video in here?
What's Involved?
A strict Northern Ireland golf vacation is largely going to involve running along the Antrim Coast, with the exception of Royal County Down which lies to south. This means the middle section can adopt a daily back-to-base operating out of Portrush, whilst a significant amount of the mileage is generated getting there and back from Dublin. There would reach a point however where a second base would be needed if we continued to push further and further west.
The decision as to whether we fly to Dublin, or London that would allow us to transfer to Belfast on a hopper flight probably frames what a final Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, and Northern Ireland Golf Vacation would look like.
If we used Belfast, we’d lose Portmarnock and County Louth, but would be able to go deeper into the exploration of the North. There’d be an argument in favour of removing Castlerock and looking to introduce, Nairn & Portnoo, County Sligo and Enniscrone. On balance this would probably weaken the golf, but strengthen the ‘Irish experience’
The Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, and Northern Ireland Golf Vacation is laid out as an eight night duration that observes something of an out and back transfer from Dublin before adopting a daily back-to-base model, staying at:
- Portmarnock – 1 + 1 nights
- Newcastle (County Down) – 1 night
- Portrush – 3 nights
- Rosapenna – 2 nights
There would be a quite persuasive argument in favour of trimming this down to 10 rounds of golf and dropping one so as to introduce a dedicated Dublin non-golf day
This is a medium mileage tour and medium to low intensity.
We estimate a total of 500 miles, although 200 of this would be the result of getting between Dublin and Belfast
We estimate the approximate road time to be 14 hrs 15 mins, which is an average of about 1hr 45 mins each day. Worth noting perhaps is that 4 hrs of this road time would be two runs between Dublin and Belfast
We don’t normally encourage people to use hired drivers in Northern Ireland, the cost is surprisingly expensive for what is normally considered a lower value economy, but with Portmarnock, RCD, and Rosapenna being walk out (or walk in) to play courses, and a number of others (Portstewart, and Portrush) being local, there is more scope to do so perhaps than we normally see
Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, and Northern Ireland Golf Vacation can support Luxury, Premier and Affordable options. The trip is probably defined by the average travel class of the stay however, which is what we’d categorise as ‘premier’
As ever, the scale of non-golf activity depends on whether we’re adding extra value for golfers, or building a stand alone proposal for non-golfers to run alongside a golf programme.
Unlike west Ireland , the Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, and Northern Ireland Golf Vacation, has a more clustered non-golf offer. It’s probably a better one too. The destinations are much closer to the golf courses, which means golfers can add them more easily or non-golfers can build a fairly credible tour regardless of any playing
- Dublin with Portmarnock
- Battle of the Boyne with RCD or County Louth
- Belfast with Castlerock
- Giants Causeway with Portstewart
- Carrick u Rede with Portrush
If we fly into Dublin rather than Belfast, then we should perhaps consider coming in 24 hrs earlier to create a non-golf Saturday in the Irish capital. That would be a good value choice
The drive between Portmarnock and RCD will take us past the Battle of the Boyne, which is worth including
The Antrim Coast offers use the Giants Causeway, The Carrick u Rede Ropebridge, Dunluce Castle, and if you have any knowledge / interest in ‘A Game of Thrones’ a place known in the series as ‘The Dark Hedges’
Belfast’s offer tends to be darker. The city’s cab drivers run very interesting tours of the ‘divided communities’ taking you right up to the chalk face of the recent troubled past. The city also has the ‘Titanic Centre’ (the ill fated liner was built in Belfast)
We start to struggle a bit as we go west to Rosapenna, but if we went beyond this point into Donegal and Sligo we’d start to encounter something closer to the quintessential rural Ireland again immortalised in verse by WB Yeats
The following courses operate the following handicap thresholds for gentlemen and ladies respectively
- Royal Portrush (18 & 24)
- Royal County Down (24 & 36)
- Portmarnock (24 & 36)
Portrush doesn’t permit visitor play on Weds, nor Sat or Sun mornings. Their week day play is a mixture of full and half days. Tues and Thurs are full days. Mon is afternoon only, and Friday is mornings only. In order to play the Dunluce links off a morning tee-time, Portrush now require that we play a second round on their Valley course over two days. It maybe necessary to replace Portstewart under this regulation if the booking has been left a little bit later and the less restricted afternoon times have all been taken
RCD doesn’t permit visitor play on Weds or Sat, or Sun morning. They also operate a mixture of half days and full days for weekdays. Mon, Tues, and Fri are full days
The Rosapenna resort hotel is the logical place to use, but they require a two night minimum stay. This means playing Portstewart and moving on the same day to establish our first night
Portmarnock only permits visitor play on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Sun afternoons
Portstewart doesn’t permit visitor morning play at weekends
RCD sell their tee-times on one hectic day by phone. This involves hitting ‘last number redial’ over and over again in the hope of landing on their limited by number call stacking system. Very often we have to spend hours and hours meeting the engaged tone.
Faraway Fairways have nearly always succeeded in getting tee-times at RCD (eventually) but we’ve had too many near misses to know that we’ll fail again in the future.
There is a known risk in this process, and whereas clients are always welcome to roll the dice themselves and see if they can get lucky alongside our efforts (can always be worth trying), but we’ve never had anyone succeed where ahead of Fairways Fairways yet
Testimonial
From BB Canada
“I told Alun the courses I was interested in playing and he prepared a stay and play package with 14 days of outstanding golf, but also tremendous site seeing opportunities for my wife.”
From JC Illinois
“His attention to detail is amazing--I think our travel plan booklet ran to forty-eight pages, with gorgeous descriptions of cities and sights, plus maps showing where to go to catch trains, or walk from trains to hotels, sights and golf courses, etc.”
From DF Alabama
“I will cherish the memories for a long time- especially the wonderful times spent on and off the golf course with two of my brothers and brother-in-law. None of the memories and golf would have been possible or enjoyed without your tremendous planning and logistical support.”
AS from Colorado
“Alun and Faraway Fairways created possibly the most memorable golf trip we have ever experienced. EPIC is the only word that comes to mind.”
AC, From Florida/ New York, 2025
“We were hopeful to secure a 4 ball at St. Andrews while avoiding the massive expense other operators had quoted. He was very clear about the plan for achieving a tee time at the Old Course through the ballot, including detailed instruction on how it could be done, and what our odds were. He suggested mid- to late April as the best chance of success and advised that this is also the least rainy part of the year. We took his advice and trusted the process. Well, he was right on all counts!”
From SB, Minnesota
“We wholeheartedly recommend Alun and Faraway Fairways if you’re looking for a golf trip that is effortless, enjoyable, and truly unforgettable—even for a non-golfer in the mix! My husband and I will be daydreaming about this trip for years to come. 5.5 stars!”
From JB, California
“The best part was that the service was surprisingly affordable. They were thousands of dollars below other quotes that I received, in fact the prices were very similar to what I would have paid if I would have booked everything on my own.”
From JCA, Maryland
“I would and will highly recommend your company to anyone looking to plan an unforgettable golf trip. Thank You for putting together a fantastic trip for J.C. and me”
From WF Connecticut
“I think all eight of us would agree that Alun at Faraway Fairways did an absolutely wonderful job of putting this “golf vacation of a lifetime” together for us. His focus on the details was extraordinary from the choice of courses and the timing of the tee times, the amazingly beautiful accommodations along with some excellent meal selections, and the transportation options he provided to get us from place to place.”
From DR South Carolina
“You are about to tee it up in your Major. Seek wisdom, integrity and professionalism. Alun Davies and Faraway Fairways will not disappoint you. They cannot assure a calm sunny day with temperatures in the 70’s on the Old Course.”
From MM, California
“One fantastic trip you organized, and more importantly took ownership of in terms of daily communication and stewardship during our 2+ weeks in Scotland and Ireland. The logistics were spotless…100% of the transports were on time and excellent, the lodging choices spectacular and the golf was off the charts in terms of quality and arrangements made”
DH from California
“You cannot go wrong with the support Faraway Fairways offered. I did this trip solo and all last minute but I have already begun to plan the next trip which will include my best golfing buddies.”