Royal Dornoch
A pure Highlands links that rewards control and imagination. Royal Dornoch runs along the shore with firm, fast fairways, natural humps and hollows, and elevated, domed greens that ask you to choose between the aerial route and the ground game. Wind is part of the strategy, views are ever-present, and the test builds steadily from the opening hole to the far turn and back.
About the Courses
The history, reputation and majestic setting of Royal Dornoch Golf Club, with its two world-class natural links courses, make it one of the must-play venues for golfers around the globe.
Royal Dornoch’s second course, The Struie, is also regularly ranked in the top 50 links courses across Great Britain & Ireland. Officially opened as a 12-hole ladies’ course in 1899, it became the present 18 holes in 1999 after a remodelling.
The club was formed in 1877 and was granted a Royal charter in 1906 by King Edward VII, a close friend of the 3rd Duke of Sutherland and a frequent visitor to the area.
Old Tom Morris laid out the 18-hole seaside Championship Course in 1886, extending the original nine holes and introducing the trademark plateau greens.
John Sutherland, a club secretary in that period and later known as the ‘father of golf’ in Dornoch, refined Morris’s course and helped pioneer its marketing by encouraging visitors to the far north through his writing on golf and local scenery.
The Championship Course – consistently ranked among the leading venues of the world and selected as Scotland’s best course at the 2020 World Golf Awards – is revered by professionals and amateurs alike and bookings to secure a tee time are normally made over 12 months in advance.
Where to find us?
On the edge of the coastal town of Dornoch in Sutherland, beside the Dornoch Firth. The clubhouse and 1st tee sit a short stroll from the town’s centre and shoreline.
Royal Dornoch Golf Club
Golf Road
Dornoch
IV25 3LW
Plan Your Stay and Play
Create your own, or use one of our three ready-made itineraries, each built around two nights and three rounds across Cabot Highlands, Royal Dornoch and Nairn.