This was my first visit to Northern Ireland, in May 2024. We had flown from New York into Dublin and met up with old friends now living in Australia and then drove up to Portrush. What a week!
Dublin is a very easy flight from NY - 6 hours only, almost too short a flight to get any kind of decent sleep. We stayed at The Iveagh Gardens hotel. Nice hotel, great staff, BUT the noise! There’s a tram line and night club out front, and any kind of event inside the hotel means noise everywhere. DON”T stay here!
Our Dublin visit included visits to the Book of Kells, The Castle, Molly Mallone’s statue and of course, the obligatory tour of the Guiness center. I learned how to properly pour the black gold; I should have perhaps had this training before working at The Queens Hall in Edinburgh all those years ago. The Book of Kells and the Library are really worth the visit. Don’t take a tour; get your own tix as the place has very helpful audio. BTW, I was instructed to touch Molly as shown : apparently it’s for good luck… .
There was one other event: Bruce.
Bruce posing to 80,000 adoring fans at Croke Park Stadium.
Bruce is a sprightly 74 year old, yet still manages to play 3 hour shows, and was in the midst of a long global tour; lucky for us we were in town when he was playing. A great gig in a special place.
Ok, so that was Dublin. Northward ho!
A 2.5 hour drive by good motorway to Portrush, so no big deal. We staid at Craignamara, a really fabulous B&B hosted by Kerrie and Rod. Lovely people. They built this place after selling the Kingshouse hotel in Glencoe. (This is also worth checking out; it’s in a fabulous area of Scotland). We had a great room, terrific breakfasts, and Kerrie joined us for a round on the Dunluce. I would highly recommend staying here. It’s just so well done with great views and easy access to the golf and town.
Craignamara in Portrush.
We had been introduced to Kerrie, and the two Members who very kindly hosted us by Winged Foot’s own Paulie C: this guy seems to know everyone in golf; a terrific character and lovely guy. We played one day with David M and Kerrie. Below is Gill and me at the famous 5th hole which the pros can drive (and risk the ball rolling out over the near sheer drop to the beach.) In the background is Dunluce Castle and way out there is The Giants Causeway.
Edge of the 5th
This time with the pros at The Open that Shane won.
The other time we played was with Mark and Claire. Again, super nice people who made us feel very welcome and we had a very fun round with them too:
This golf course is hard! It ranges over what seems like a huge amount of land. The view from The Royal Court hotel is simply incredible:
Royal portrush from the Royal Court Hotel.
Just amazing. The course is all in front of you, with what I thought were relatively narrow fairways, well protected by traps off the tees. Then narrow approaches into greens that seemed to have very penal run off areas if you missed. The roughs were growing in again, and I could see this being extremely hard in a competition setting. Nothing unfair, just a marvellous layout by Harry Colt. I thought 5-6-7 were terrific holes, as are the final three starting with a testing par three aptly named Calamity. The entire course was just fantastic, however. In addition, there’s a very nice clubhouse with a very welcoming bar and dining area. I can see why the Members feel they have something very special here. The Valley course is undergoing renovation, and these two courses will be a terrific golf experience to enjoy on a future trip here. Shane Lowry won here on The Dunluce in 2019, and The Open is back again in 2025.
My pictures just don’t really do the place any favours. This is a link to a really detailed description of the course: https://www.royalportrushgolfclub.com/our-courses/dunluce-links/
Martin Ebert created a couple of new holes and made some other design changes ahead of the 2019 Open, won by the very popular Shane Lowry. The town is fun too. There’s some good dining and we enjoyed The Harbor Bistro plus The Wine Bar. We had one day of really bad weather, so took a trip to Derry, and then the Giants Causeway. Maybe we had inflated expectations, but I thought the causeway was a little disappointing.
We did enjoy the fish and chips at Morton’s in Ballycastle, about 20 minutes away. It gets highly rated and I would have given a top rating but for the purple hair and metal up noses and who knows where else of some of the folks serving it up. I guess I am getting old… The Wee Chippy in Fife still rates very high, but the cod and haddock were outstanding at Morton’s.
All in, a really nice visit to Ireland. I thought the Dunluce was one of the very best courses I have ever played, and hope I get a chance to go back. We were extremely well taken care of by the Members and at Craignamara, which I would highly recommend. The Valley course will be open soon, and close by is Port Stewart. Lots to do and some great golf.