The Best Links Courses in the United Kingdom
Links golf was born on these coasts, and the United Kingdom still holds the greatest concentration of it on earth. From the Mountains of Mourne to the home of golf at St Andrews, here are the ten finest, ranked, with our verdicts and how to play each one.
Photograph: glen28wright, Royal St George's Golf Club, via Google
How we ranked them
No country plays links golf the way these islands do. The form was invented on the firm, sandy ground where the land meets the sea here, and the United Kingdom still owns the deepest collection of it anywhere, from the great Scottish championship links to the English coast around Southport and the wild Antrim and County Down shores of Northern Ireland. We weighed the quality and strategy of the golf, the drama of the setting, the run of firm turf and sea wind that makes a links a links, championship pedigree, and how readily a visiting group can actually get a tee time. The result is a top ten that spans the four corners of the kingdom.
Every fact here, the designers, the par and yardage, the Open host history and the indicative green fees, was checked at the time of writing in June 2026 by the GolfForKings editorial desk. Fees move with the season and the year, and the very best of these links command premium rates and limited visitor days, so treat the numbers as a guide and always confirm directly before booking. The verdicts are ours. If your group wants several of these strung into one costed itinerary, with the right hotels and the tee sheets locked down, that is exactly what our concierge does.
The 10 best links courses in the United Kingdom
Royal County Down, Championship Links
Beneath the Mountains of Mourne at Newcastle, this is the links by which the others are measured, ranked first in Britain and Ireland by most panels. Old Tom Morris laid out the original eighteen for the modest fee of four guineas, and the course that grew from it is a procession of blind drives, tumbling fairways and bunkers fringed with marram and gorse. The front nine, with the mountains and the sea at your shoulder, is as beautiful and as testing as golf gets. Visitor access is limited and prized, which only adds to the pilgrimage.
The Old Course at St Andrews
The home of golf, where the game has been played on these links since the fifteenth century and the Claret Jug has been contested since the 1800s. The double greens, the Swilcan Bridge, the Road Hole seventeenth and the Valley of Sin make this the most recognizable golf course on the planet, and it remains public, played by ballot. Stretched to around 7,300 yards and lengthened again ahead of the 2027 Open, it is a course you read rather than overpower, and every serious golfer should walk it at least once.
Muirfield, Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
For many of the world's best players the purest examination in golf. Home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers and host of sixteen Open Championships, Muirfield's two returning loops mean the wind comes from a different angle on almost every hole, so there is nowhere to hide. The bunkering is immaculate and merciless, the rough penal, the routing a model of fairness that hides nothing. Jack Nicklaus rated it the best in Britain. Visitor days are limited and formal, and worth every effort to secure.
Royal Portrush, Dunluce Links
The jewel of the Antrim coast and the only course outside Great Britain on the Open rota, host in 2019 and again in 2025. Harry Colt's masterpiece tumbles through huge dunes above the sea, framed by the ruins of Dunluce Castle, with Calamity Corner and the closing stretch among the most thrilling in the championship game. The 2017 remodel by Mackenzie and Ebert added two superb new holes and sharpened an already great links. It pairs naturally with Royal County Down for the finest two course week in these islands.
Royal Birkdale
The pick of England's Golf Coast and, St Andrews aside, the most prolific modern Open venue, hosting the championship for the eleventh time in July 2026. Birkdale's fairways thread flat through towering dunes, so the lies are fair and the wind does the defending, a layout players consistently call the fairest of the English links. Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and a roll of major champions have won here. Welcoming to visitors by the standards of the rota, it anchors a Southport trip alongside Hillside and Royal Lytham.
Turnberry, Ailsa Course
The most scenic of all the championship links, running along the Ayrshire shore beneath its lighthouse with Ailsa Craig and the Isle of Arran filling the horizon. This is the stage of the 1977 Duel in the Sun, when Tom Watson edged Jack Nicklaus by a shot. Philip Mackenzie Ross rebuilt the course from wartime runways in 1951, and Martin Ebert's recent reworking of the holes around the lighthouse produced one of the great stretches in the game. Resort access makes it one of the easier flagship links to play.
Royal St George's
The only Open venue in the south of England and the first club outside Scotland to host the championship, in 1894, with fifteen Opens to its name. Laid out on the rumpled dunes at Sandwich, it is the most idiosyncratic of the rota links, all blind shots, humped fairways and the deepest bunker in championship golf on the fourth. Big hitters can struggle to find a flat lie, which is precisely the point. A round here is a step back into the eccentric, original spirit of links golf.
Royal Liverpool, Hoylake
One of the oldest and most distinguished links in England, the second oldest seaside course in the country and host of the Open thirteen times, most recently in 2023. Hoylake looks deceptively flat and benign, then defends itself with out of bounds cops, fierce cross winds off the Dee estuary and some of the most demanding closing holes on the rota. It is a thinking golfer's links where position off the tee is everything, and a fitting companion to Birkdale and Lytham on a northwest England tour.
Royal Lytham and St Annes
The most unusual opening in championship golf, a par three first hole, sets the tone for a links that sits inland behind the town yet plays as hard as any on the coast. Lytham has hosted eleven Opens and a string of famous finishes, defended by more than two hundred pot bunkers and a relentless run of long, exposed holes on the back nine. Bobby Jones, Seve Ballesteros and Ernie Els are among its champions. It rewards driving accuracy and nerve over raw power.
Carnoustie, Championship Course
Carnasty, as the players call it, is widely held to be the hardest links on the Open rota, a brutal, exposed stretch of golf on the Angus coast where the Barry Burn snakes through the closing holes and the wind rarely rests. The final three holes are the most feared finish in the championship, the scene of famous collapses and famous triumphs alike. There is no scenery to soften it and no let up in the test, which is exactly why connoisseurs of hard, honest links golf rank it among the greats.
Designers, par and yardage, host history and rankings verified June 2026 by the GolfForKings editorial desk. Course profiles are added across the site as the directory grows. Always confirm visitor access and fees directly before booking.
Where they are, and indicative costs
The great UK links fall into clear clusters. Scotland's east coast gathers St Andrews, Muirfield and Carnoustie within an hour or two of Edinburgh, while Turnberry sits on the Ayrshire shore in the west. Northern Ireland pairs Royal County Down and Royal Portrush either side of Belfast. In England, Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham cluster on the northwest coast around Southport and the Wirral, with Royal St George's standing alone in Kent. A well planned week can comfortably combine three or four, and our concierge ties the travel and tee times together.
| Item | Indicative 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Green fee, flagship links | Around £250 to £1,000 per round | Highest at the Old Course, Muirfield, Royal County Down and Turnberry, peak season |
| Visitor access | Often midweek, by booking | Handicap certificate usual at the members clubs; the Old Course also runs a daily ballot |
| A week, all in | Around £3,000 to £6,000 per person | Hotels, several championship rounds, transfers, excluding flights |
Indicative third party figures for the 2026 season, shown to set expectations only. We are a guide, not an operator, and never quote our own pricing. Always confirm directly before booking.
Plan your UK links golf trip
Tell us the links you want and roughly when. One concierge costs the whole trip to the head, secures the tee times at the members clubs and replies within one working day, with no obligation.
UK links golf questions
What is the best links course in the UK?
Royal County Down's Championship Links at Newcastle, beneath the Mountains of Mourne, is our number one and tops most British and Irish links rankings. The Old Course at St Andrews is the spiritual choice and Muirfield the purest test, but for sheer drama and quality of golf, Royal County Down stands first. Our ranking weighs the golf, the setting, the championship pedigree and how readily a visitor can play.
Can visitors play the UK's Open Championship links?
Most are open to visitors on set days with a handicap certificate and advance booking. The Old Course at St Andrews takes bookings and runs a daily ballot. Muirfield admits visitors on limited days. Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Royal Birkdale and the others welcome green fee play, usually midweek and priced as a premium round. Always confirm access and fees directly before booking.
How much does it cost to play the top UK links in 2026?
Indicative 2026 peak season green fees at the flagship links run from roughly £250 to £1,000 per round, highest at the Old Course, Muirfield, Royal County Down and Turnberry. A week pairing several of them with hotels and transfers typically lands from around £3,000 to £6,000 per head excluding flights. Always confirm directly before booking.
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