Can you play these ferry island courses on a trip?

Yes. The Scottish island links pair naturally into a Hebridean or Argyll golf tour built around the ferry timetable, while Fishers Island and Vineyard Golf Club are private and best reached through an introduction. We build either into a costed itinerary on request.

Courses on Islands You Need a Ferry to Reach, Hamilton Island Golf Club golf course

Ranked · 6 courses · updated 2026

The Best Golf Courses on Islands You Need a Ferry to Reach

A ferry crossing is the best entrance fee in golf. It sorts the merely curious from the truly committed, and it delivers you to courses that the road never reaches, where the wind off the water is the architect's closing argument. These six are the finest you cannot drive to. From Seth Raynor's island masterpiece off the Connecticut coast to the restored links of the Outer Hebrides, ranked.

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By the GolfForKings editorial desk · How we rank · Last reviewed June 2026

Photograph: Hamilton Island Golf Club, Hamilton Island Golf Club, via Google

How we chose them

Plenty of great courses sit on islands you can drive onto over a bridge or a causeway. We left those out. To make this list a course had to sit on an island where the only practical way to arrive with your clubs is a boat, the crossing booked, the timetable studied, the car loaded onto the deck. That single rule does something to a golf course. It thins the traffic, lengthens the anticipation and rewards the people who made the effort with turf and views that busier places cannot match.

We weighed design pedigree, the quality of the links or coastal land, the conditioning and how memorable the round is for a travelling golfer, and we verified every designer and opening year at the time of writing. Two of these, Fishers Island and Vineyard Golf Club, are private, and we say so plainly. The rest welcome visitors who plan around the ferry. The verdicts and the order are ours. If you want any of them built into a costed island itinerary, that is what our concierge does.

The ranking

Fishers Island Club

Seth Raynor · opened 1926 · Fishers Island, New York · private

The finest course on earth that you can only reach by boat, and the last and greatest work of Seth Raynor, who died before it opened in 1926. Set on a slender island in Long Island Sound and reached by ferry from New London, Connecticut, it shows saltwater from nearly every tee and green, a rare claim for an American course. Raynor's template holes, the Punchbowl, the Biarritz, the Redan, sit on land so good they need no apology, and the routing along the water at the turn is among the most thrilling in the game. It is a private members club, so a round runs through a member or a club introduction, but on pure quality it ranks inside the top ten courses in the United States. The destination round of any ferry golfer's life.

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The Machrie

Willie Campbell 1891 · reimagined by D.J. Russell · Isle of Islay, Scotland

Islay is famous for whisky and, among golfers, for The Machrie, a links first laid out by Willie Campbell in 1891 and reimagined in recent years by D.J. Russell into a modern routing that threads the big dunes above Laggan Bay. The old Machrie was a cult of blind shots and humpback fairways. The new one keeps the wildness while opening sightlines and adding a smart hotel, and the result is one of the most atmospheric links in Scotland, far from the crowds of the mainland. Reach it by ferry from Kennacraig on the Kintyre peninsula, then settle in for a few days of links and distilleries. A complete island golf escape and an easy course to love.

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Askernish Golf Club

Old Tom Morris · restored 2008 · South Uist, Outer Hebrides

The most romantic story in golf. Old Tom Morris laid out a links on the machair of South Uist in 1891, the land reverted to grazing for a century, and in 2008 a team led by Gordon Irvine and Martin Ebert rediscovered and restored his lost holes more or less as he left them. The result is golf stripped to its origins: firm, rumpled, treeless turf running to the Atlantic, no irrigation, no fuss, sheep keeping the rough down. It is reached by a long Caledonian MacBrayne crossing and the journey is part of the point. Purists call it the most natural links in the world, and after a round on a breezy afternoon you understand why. Unmissable for anyone who cares where the game came from.

Plan a Hebrides golf trip

Vineyard Golf Club

Donald Steel and Tom Mackenzie · opened 2002 · Martha's Vineyard · private

The only fully organic championship course in the United States, built on Martha's Vineyard in 2002 by the British architects Donald Steel and Tom Mackenzie, who were required to manage it without synthetic chemicals to protect the island's sole aquifer. The constraint produced a links inspired layout of rolling fescue fairways and natural rough that plays firm and fast in the prevailing sea breeze, a genuine taste of British golf an ocean away. It is an exclusive private club reached by ferry from Woods Hole, so access comes through a member, but as a piece of design and a statement about how golf can sit lightly on the land it earns its place here.

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Shiskine Golf Club

Willie Park · 12 holes, par 42 · Blackwaterfoot, Isle of Arran

A twelve hole links at Blackwaterfoot on the west of Arran, laid out with a hand from Willie Park, and proof that a course need not have eighteen holes to be one of the most charming rounds in Britain. It runs out toward the sea beneath the bulk of Drumadoon, with blind shots over hillocks, greens tucked into folds and views to the Mull of Kintyre across the water. At a shade under three thousand yards it is short and quirky and utterly addictive, the kind of place you finish and immediately want to play again. Reach Arran by ferry from Ardrossan to Brodick and drive across the island. The most fun you can have on twelve holes.

Plan an Arran golf trip

Isle of Harris Golf Club

links · Scarista, Outer Hebrides

Nine holes of links above the white sands of Scarista on the west coast of Harris, set against some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere in the game. The course is honest rather than grand, a community run links that tumbles toward a beach often ranked among the finest in Britain, with the Atlantic and the hills of South Harris filling every view. You play it for the setting, the welcome and the sheer remoteness as much as the golf, and it makes a perfect pairing with Askernish on a longer Hebridean tour. Reach Harris by ferry to Tarbert from Uig on Skye or Ullapool to Stornoway. Golf at the edge of the world.

Plan a Hebrides golf trip

Designers and opening years verified June 2026. Fishers Island and Vineyard Golf Club are private; the Scottish island links welcome visitors but tee times are shaped by the ferry timetable, so always confirm sailings and green fees directly before booking. Check tee time availability.

Plan a golf trip to the islands

Tell us which islands are on your list, the Hebrides, Islay, Arran or a New England crossing, and roughly when. One concierge works the ferry timetable, the tee times and the base, and costs the trip to the head, with no obligation.

Island golf questions

What is the best golf course you can only reach by ferry?

Fishers Island Club in New York, a Seth Raynor design reached by ferry from New London, Connecticut, is the highest rated course on this list and sits inside the top ten of Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest. It is a private members club, so access runs through a member or a club to club introduction.

Which Scottish island courses need a ferry?

The Machrie on Islay, Askernish on South Uist, Shiskine on Arran and the Isle of Harris course at Scarista all sit on islands served by Caledonian MacBrayne or West Coast Motors ferries. Book the car ferry well ahead in summer, as sailings fill and the crossings shape your tee times.

Can you play these courses on one trip?

The Scottish island links pair naturally into a Hebridean or Argyll golf tour built around the ferry timetable, often combining Islay, Arran or the Outer Hebrides with mainland links. Fishers Island and Vineyard Golf Club are private and best reached through an introduction. We build either into a costed itinerary on request.

Do you need to book the ferry in advance?

Yes, especially in summer. Car ferry space to the Scottish islands fills weeks ahead in high season, and the sailing times set the rhythm of your golf, so the smart move is to book the crossing first and arrange tee times around it. Always confirm current timetables and fares directly before booking.

The Tee Sheet

Course openings, ranking shake ups and the booking windows that matter. Every other week.

Researched and written by the GolfForKings editorial desk. Course designers and opening years verified June 2026. Last reviewed June 2026.