Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Links

The verdict

Every Highland golf trip needs a day like this one. Fortrose and Rosemarkie is not long, not famous and not expensive, and that is precisely the point: it is the connoisseur's add on, the round that ends up the story you tell when you get home. The whole course sits on the narrow Chanonry Peninsula, so the sea is with you on three sides, the views run from Fort George across the firth to the hills above Inverness, and the bottlenose dolphins that hunt off Chanonry Point patrol within sight of the fairways.

The golf deserves more than its scenery. Braid rebunkered and rerouted the links in 1932, and his fingerprints survive: small, subtle greens, pot bunkers exactly where the brave line wants to go, and a routing that turns the wind into a fresh question every few holes. At a par 71 of around 6,085 yards it will not beat you up, but on a breezy day it will quietly take its strokes. Pair it with Royal Dornoch and Nairn and you have the full Highland education for a fraction of a marquee fee.

The golf worth the trip

The setting does half the work. The peninsula is barely wide enough for two fairways in places, so almost every shot is played with water glittering in your peripheral vision and the Chanonry lighthouse drawing the eye down the point. The turf is proper links stuff, firm and fast, and the gorse that lines the playing corridors blazes yellow in May and eats anything hit without thought.

Braid's greens are the test. Most are small, raised just enough to shrug off a mishit pitch, and full of borrows you can read only after a walk around the hole. Into the prevailing southwesterly the short par 4s grow teeth, downwind the firm ground runs your ball through fairways you thought generous, and the par 3s by the shore can need anything from a wedge to a hybrid depending on the day. It is golf at the scale the old masters intended, where craft beats power on every card.

Stop at Chanonry Point after the round. On a rising tide the dolphins fish close enough to the shingle that you can hear them breathe, a finish no other course in Scotland offers. Then drive the half hour to Cabot Highlands or over the Kessock Bridge into Inverness for dinner.

Where to stay nearby

Fortrose itself is a quiet cathedral village with guest houses and holiday cottages a few minutes from the first tee, perfect if you want the dolphins at dawn. Most travelling golfers base themselves in Inverness, twenty minutes away, where the hotel choice runs from city center spots to country houses on the Ness, and the restaurants can feed a golf group well all week.

The smart Highland loop stays two or three nights around Inverness for this course, Nairn and Cabot Highlands Castle Stuart, then moves an hour north to Dornoch for Royal Dornoch, Golspie and Brora.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around Inverness.