Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation
Includes - Royal Dornoch, Castle Stuart, Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen, Nairn, Moray, Royal Burgess & the St Andrews New Course with the Balvenie, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, and Glenmorangie distilleries, plus the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh
Where Sinking Putts and Drinking Shots Collide
Perhaps there is a natural evolution in playing golf that persuades us to drink whisky? but Faraway Fairways have been struck by just how many golfers identify themselves as whisky drinkers. Scotland has of course bequeathed both these totems of civilisation to the advancement of humanity, so it seemed natural to try and combine them and offer the ultimate combination Scottish of Golf with Whisky Vacation.
The collision of whisky with golf really comes together in Speyside. This means following a looping circuit which begins with a drive north into the ethereal Scottish Highlands. From here we adopt a west to east route that crosses through Speyside before emerging on the other side in Aberdeenshire.
Finally we trail down the east coast to take a shot at St Andrews before completing in Edinburgh, which might not be a production centre, but hosts many of the country’s biggest bottle collections and tasting experiences
The Itinerary
Saturday – Nairn
Sunday – Castle Stuart (Loch Ness/ Urquhart Castle)
Monday – Royal Dornoch (Glenmorangie)
Tuesday – Old Moray (Culloden)
Wednesday – (Balvenie, Aberlour, Glenfiddich)
Thursday – Cruden Bay
Friday – Royal Aberdeen
Saturday – St Andrews New Course (St Andrews town)
Sunday – Royal Burgess (Edinburgh)
Important note – We will only be able to contest the St Andrews Old Course ballot for Saturday. We should perhaps treat it as an unexpected bonus, as we probably only enjoy a 1 in 8 chance
We won’t be able to contest any singles ballots
Saturday - Nairn
Created from a Highland wilderness of gorse and heather Nairn is a perennial Scottish top-25 hoverer.
Nairn is a bit like a great symphony which takes you on a journey with each movement getting progressively challenging before developing into a climatic crescendo. Nairn requires you to use every club in you bag, and play a myriad of different shots.
Wise heads frequently nominate Nairn as possessing the best putting surface that Scotland has to offer too. One of the slightly more remarkable features is that you can very easily hit the ball into the sea on every one of the first seven! If you’re a ‘leftie’ with a tendency to hook, you might like to consider packing an extra sleeve of balls!
Sunday - Castle Stuart
Castle Stuart is another modern addition to the golfing landscape having opened in July 2009.
The course is set on two-tiered balconies overlooking the dark and foreboding waters of the Moray Firth. Players enjoy stunning panoramas from the highest elevations. The course is rich in the textured signature landscape of Scottish ‘whins’, gorse and broom, heather, and marram from beginning to end. These change colour with the seasons as nature commanded, and weave a tapestry of highland hues into this landscape mosaic of rugged beauty.
The course has quickly established a bit tour pedigree when it hosted the prestigious Scottish Open, where Luke Donald and Alex Noren have triumphed. It was used successfully by Phil Mickelson in 2013 as a springboard to Open success a month later at Muirfield.
Monday - Royal Dornoch with Glenmorangie
Golf Digest has rated Royal Dornoch the highest of Scotland’s many worthy candidates, and it remains one of elite quartet that vies for the title of best courses.
The Championship course represented a paradigm in design that endures today. The ‘bump-and-run‘ was the traditional shot to mitigate a links wind. Elevated plinth greens were introduced and ringed with fiendish pot-bunkers to guard them from any such commando approach. Without completely taking the traditional ‘stock shot’ out of the equation, a degree of risk was added. Dornoch therefore challenges you to go the aerial route, and ride the wind. Iron play is the key to the course. The rationale is simple: hit a good approach shot and you should be rewarded. Hit a bad one, and you pay the penalty.
Tom Watson said of Dornoch “the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course”.
Visiting the Glenmorangie distillery will depend on our tee-time at Dornoch
Tuesday - Old Moray/ Lossiemouth
Moray Old is a rugged links with heaving sand dunes, heinous gorse, and wicked undulations. With sea views to marvel at and a lighthouse too, its quite aesthetic.
Moray is an innovators course requiring an instinctive read of the landscape. A good touch with the putter is likely to serve you better than a blast with the driver. The real joy is to be had chipping, executing deft links rescues.
The 18th is often cited, as Scotland’s best closing hole with a sense of procession leading into a natural amphitheatre. Here you get the impression that you are at a St Andrews Open surrounded by spectator stands, and buildings. Indeed Moray Old, interacts with the town of Lossiemouth in a way that perhaps only St Andrews otherwise achieves.
In decades gone by Moray was the choice course for many of Speyside’s distillers. It consequently has a deep association with whisky and offers tastings as well as having it’s own committee ‘approved’ official club scotch (Macallan I believe?)
Wednesday - Balvenie, Aberlour, & Glenfiddich distilleries
The Spey is the epitome of Scotland’s fast flowing, clean water, rivers. Speyside whiskies are among Scotland’s lightest, sweetest single malts. Age often brings a bit more body and superb power. Speyside has eighty-four working distilleries.
Distilleries will only put tickets on-sale three months before a visit so we have to work behind the golf, and confirm later. We try and visit three in single day thought starting at Balvenie for what is often considered one Speyside’s best presentations. We’ll then head back to Aberlour for lunch and a tasting flight, before hopefully heading out again in the afternoon for Glenfiddich.
Glenlivet is a bit further away but also feasible, as might be Strathisla and Cardhu. Macallan only permit visitors Fri – Sun now post-covid
Thursday - Cruden Bay
If you’re the purist that believes links courses should be wild, windswept, isolated and one step away from the sea, then Cruden Bay ticks all your boxes.
The waves crashed into the bay of Cruden and set about carving a beautifully curving horseshoe. In addition, Cruden Bay also benefits from the same dramatic ‘high dune’ systems of the Trump International and Royal Aberdeen. Significantly though, Cruden Bay has greater personality, as it retains many original quirky old links features. It even counts a dog-leg par-3 amongst its garrison! The sixth, Bluidy Burn, is a candidate for finest par five in Scotland, combining as it does, just about every classic links challenge on a single hole imaginable.
Cruden Bay is sometimes referred to as a ‘cult classic’ and whereas we might associate this with the entertainment, it kind of works here too
Friday - Royal Aberdeen
Dating from 1780, the traditional nine out and nine back layout at Royal Aberdeen is the sixth oldest golf course in the world.
In 2014 Justin Rose won the Scottish Open here, whilst Tom Watson has added a seniors Open title to his collection.
The outward nine is often regarded as Scotland’s finest, wending its way north through a spectacular dunescape. It’s not hyperbole. It has legitimate claims.
Like a fairground ghost train, one by one hazards present themselves. Undulating fairways, gorse, a burn, and of course a stiff wind blowing in off the sea are essential ingredients.
It would be a mistake to overlook the merits of the back nine though. This is played on a raised plateau, and often subject to greater exposure. The final three holes rival any closing stretch in the country.
Saturday - St Andrews New Course
“New” in the context of St Andrews means 1895!
The course is often said to be the town’s favourite. It’s a tighter and more defined course than its regal neighbour, and aided by yellow gorse bushes, it tends to be more aesthetic too. The ‘New’ runs adjacent to the Old course and as a consequence has similar characteristics. The fairways are undulating but not as dipped as the Old course, leading to fewer hanging lies. A traditional out and back nine, only the 3rd and 15th share a green. The burn wends its way through a low dune system and features some particularly charismatic holes. The 464yd tenth is often cited as the pick. Think about it logically. It’s likely that the newer course that was designed for purpose, would be the better golf course than the ancient artefact. The good folk of St Andrews know!
If we lose our ballot, and if we stay Friday night at Carnoustie, then it’s always worth poking our face into the golf club to see if Carnoustie have had a cancellation or if there is a gap in the tee-sheet – it can happen
Sunday - Royal Burgess with Scotch Whisky Experience
The exclusive west Edinburgh course of Royal Burgess is the oldest golf club in the world with a continuous verifiable history (1735).
The course is a parkland layout and makes for an ideal opening assignment, especially given it’s proximity to the airport. The 4th and the 11th holes are normally singled out as the most challenging, the latter even having its very own ‘Swilcan’ bridge.
The elegant clubhouse is a joy to the eye. ‘The Burgess’ is soaked in tradition and heritage and operates as something of a ‘mini museum’.
Royal Burgess enjoys the advantage of being smack in the heart of Scotland’s capital, and so allows you to spend the evening like many traveller before you has.
Edinburgh’s ‘Scotch Whisky Experience’ just below the Castle gatehouse has the country’s biggest bottle collection and lays on a series of tutored tastings for all levels of expertise. It is indeed, the most feared building in Scotland!
Featured Group
Do I put something about video in here?
What's Involved?
If we fly via London, then we can connect direct to Inverness and treat it as a linear north to south, point to point itinerary of Inverness in/ Edinburgh out. This is the lower mileage option. It can also run south to north as we’ve laid it out here.
The Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation is predominantly a point-to-point tour which travels to three distinct regions, and two sub-regions (albeit we’re probably passing through St Andrews rather than staying there). It can be set up to flow clockwise or anti clockwise, all we have to do adjust to land on the favoured days of the week
Distilleries make their money through export sales rather than visitors. You always sensed that they offered visits under a little of duress. Covid gave them an excuse to cancel their visitor programmes and its been noticeable how many took the opportunity to either cut back their offers, or simply discontinue them altogether once they reopened. It’s harder to book distilleries now than it was in 2019
Those that have reopened now tend to offer something that they call ‘experiences’ more than they do traditional distillery tours. ‘Experiences’ can cover any end of things, but usually involve tastings and presentations. They’re continually altering their offers however, with very little consistency regarding content and days of the week
Distilleries only sell their tickets three months before arrival. They notably trail the golf. We can only finally confirm them much nearer the date.
We’re going to try and stay two nights in Speyside (Craigellachie) and target Balvenie, Aberlour and Glenfiddich in a single day. Macallan only allow visits at weekends now and we can’t make the days fit with the golf and the mileage. Glenlivet are a fairly reliable substitute but a little bit further away, so would probably only be capable of being the second choice on a two distillery day rather than three.
If our tee-time at Dornoch permits, we’ll try to include the Glenmorangie distillery
Finally, it would be interesting to do an early evening presentation, tasting, and look around Edinburgh’s ‘Scotch Whisky Experience’ when we get back to the capital as a final hurrah
The Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation is laid out as a nine night duration that observes a point-to-point itinerary, staying at:
- Inverness – 3 nights
- Craigellachie – 2 nights
- Aberdeen – 1 night
- Carnoustie – 1 night
- Edinburgh – 2 nights
At about 750 miles, the Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation is a high mileage medium intensity transport burden. It involves at least one significant drive to the highlands, albeit this could be eliminated if we flew to Inverness via London and turned it into a single flow linear path of travel
In total, this should only require about 17 hrs 30 mins of road time, which is an average of just under 2 hrs a day (we haven’t counted the Speyside mileage as we’re assuming the use of third party driver)
Although we wouldn’t advise using a hired driver for the full delivery of the Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation, as there are three regions we’re seeking to link and we’d likely incur ‘driver away’ overnight accommodation costs, there is one rather obvious exception
Unless we can persuade a member of any respective party to forego drinking any whisky during our Speyside distillery day and assume responsibility for the driving, we’re otherwise going to have a problem.
Craigellachie and Aberlour only has two taxi firms, and they run cars rather than MPV’s. If we have a larger group we usually need to bring in transport from further afield. Sadly local transport suppliers know they’ve got whisky tourists in something of a hostage situation and can seek to capitalise on that (surprisingly Aberdeen is often cheaper than the specialist suppliers to the west and Inverness)
Although the Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation could support Luxury, Premier and Affordable options, both Craigellache and Carnoustie hotels are a bit locked in for lack of alternatives and would be considered ‘premier’. The logical hotel to use in Edinburgh for access to the Scotch Whisky Experience is also premier standard, so this is the sector which we think is more likely to characterise the trip
By definition, the Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation already has non-golf activity hard baked into its DNA. One of the big bonuses however is that it opens up the highlands to include Culloden, Loch Ness, and Urquhart Castle. This trio are all ‘A’ list and very credible
We’ll likely pass through St Andrews but the ‘auld grey toon’ is a legitimate point of interest regardless of golf. The ruined old castle and cathedral are natural focus points, whereas the town also possesses aesthetic charisma and history.
Edinburgh is also rich with prospects and opportunities
The only weaker leg really comes at Aberdeen. Dunnottar Castle is in a line of travel between Aberdeen and Carnoustie, and a genuine point of interest
The Scottish Golf with Whisky Vacation doesn’t encounter the number golf courses operating handicap thresholds that we more typically see elsewhere
- Nairn (24 & 36)
- Royal Aberdeen (24 & 36)
- Royal Burgess (24 & 36)
- St Andrews (36)
Unlike some courses who needn’t be rigid in enforcing their handicap thresholds, the St Andrews Links Trust will do. Failure to provide evidence will result in a refusal to allow us to play
The Old Course diary is available on-line to consult for availability and is dynamic in so much as it changes every season, although there are some known block outs that occur every year, notably the first week of May, the first week of June, and a run from early/ mid September to early/ mid October
There is no play on the Old Course on Sunday
Royal Aberdeen has restricted visitor play at weekends (narrow windows of play in the afternoon). Cruden Bay will normally only permit afternoon play at weekends too
Nairn can also protect the very early times for their members
Statistically, Saturday is the most favourable day of the week for winning an Old Course ballot
Speyside and the Highlands are too far away from St Andrews to launch a conventional ballot strategy. The only way we could do something that adequately covered both bases would be to add something like 3 or 4 days to the trip
By going onto Aberdeen after Speyside however, and then needing to return to Edinburgh, we’ll broadly be on a path that puts us close enough to St Andrews to aim an application at it for play on Saturday
We’ll probably only get one opportunity, so our chances of success would be considered ‘low’ (about 1 in 8) but there’d be no harm in ‘rolling the dice’ so long as we understand that we’re treating the St Andrews Old Course as unexpected bonus
If we were prepared to accept some additional mileage and clunky geographic arrangements, as well as a forfeit at Royal Aberdeen should win a ballot, then the theoretical scope exists to contest Friday’s ballot too, but we wouldn’t be so certain as to the wisdom of this
About Activities
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.”
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.”