Cape Breton Highlands Links

The verdict

Highlands Links is the masterwork of Stanley Thompson, the great Canadian architect, conceived as a make work project for the new national park and built between 1939 and 1941 with the young Geoffrey Cornish supervising the construction. The par 72 measures about 6,592 yards from the back tees, modest by modern numbers, but the routing is anything but, moving between the Atlantic shore, the dense Acadian forest and the Clyburn River as it climbs into the highlands and returns. It has topped the Canadian rankings for decades and sits among the finest public courses in the world.

What sets it apart is the sense of being out in true wilderness. There are no houses, no cart paths cutting across the holes, just Thompson's fairways laid into a national park where moose and bald eagles outnumber spectators. The conditioning is honest rather than manicured, the scenery is constant, and the design rewards the imaginative golfer who can shape a shot. For travelling golfers it is the headline reason to drive the Cabot Trail, and a natural pairing with the modern links at Cabot Cape Breton an hour away.

The holes worth the trip

Thompson gave several holes Gaelic names, and they read like a tour of the land. The seventh, Killiecrankie, climbs a long, rising par 5 to a green tucked in the trees. The par 5 fifteenth, Tattie Bogle, plays over a field of grassed mounds, while the closing stretch winds back down the Clyburn valley toward the sea. The greens are bold and full of movement, and the firm, natural turf rewards the player who runs the ball and reads the slopes.

The middle of the round takes you deepest into the highlands, well away from the clubhouse, where you walk a wooded path between holes and the only sounds are the river and the wind. It is a true walking course and all the better for it. From the back tees it asks for accuracy and a deft short game; from the forward tees it remains a glorious, fair test for any handicap.

Season is everything. The course is open roughly from May to October, and the autumn, when the maples of the highlands turn, is the most spectacular time to play, though the prime tee times go early. Pack for changeable coastal weather and savour a round that feels like nowhere else in North America.

Where to stay nearby

The Keltic Lodge sits on the headland beside the course, the classic place to stay for a Highlands Links round, with the wider Ingonish area offering inns and cottages along the Cabot Trail.

Most golfers pair Highlands Links with the modern links of Cabot Cape Breton, with Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs about an hour away at Inverness, for one of the great golf road trips in North America.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and lodges near Cape Breton Highlands Links.