How to Play Old Head of Kinsale: Tee Times and the Clifftop Round

The short answer

You play Old Head by booking directly with the club, not through any ballot. It is a private promontory with a single daily green fee that rises and falls with the season, and play is deliberately limited to protect the experience, so a confirmed tee time is the thing to lock first. As a guide, recent green fees have run from around 225 euro for the quietest early and late season days up toward 395 euro at the peak of summer, with the club confirming current 2026 rates on enquiry. The course was designed by a team including Eddie Hackett, Ron Kirby, Joe Carr, Liam Higgins and Paddy Merrigan, and routed by people who clearly understood what they had been given in that headland.

Treat the Old Head tee time as the fixed point of a southwest Ireland trip and build the rest of the week around it, because the cliffs are at their most spectacular in calm morning light and those times go first. Staying on site at the lodge can make securing a round easier and turns the visit into an event. Whatever you pay, this is a bucket list round, so go in expecting weather, carry plenty of golf balls, and play it for the experience rather than the score. Always confirm current fees and availability directly before booking.

How to book, step by step

Start with the tee time, not the flights. Because daily play is limited and the prime summer mornings are the most sought after times in Irish golf, enquire directly with the club as far ahead as you can and have your date confirmed before you build the rest of the trip. If you can be a little flexible, the early and late season days carry lower green fees and quieter tee sheets, with only a modest trade in weather risk. Consider staying on site at the lodge, which not only puts you on the headland for sunrise but can ease the path to a confirmed round, and book a caddie or a buggy at the same time, since both are worth having on a course this exposed.

Old Head sits about a forty minute drive south of Cork city and the same again from Kinsale town, so it pairs naturally with a wider southwest Ireland week taking in Ballybunion, Tralee, Waterville and Lahinch up the coast. Many strong trips fly into Cork, play Old Head early in the visit while the legs are fresh and the camera is busy, then work north and west through the great Kerry and Clare links. Lock the Old Head date first and the route plans itself around it.

When to go, and playing the headland

The southwest season runs roughly April to October, with the warmest, calmest stretches through high summer, which is also the busiest and dearest window, and the shoulders offering lower fees in exchange for a little more weather. Whenever you come, respect the wind, because out on the headland it is rarely still and the ocean carries are unforgiving. Take the conservative line off the cliff edge holes, club up into the breeze, and resist the temptation to chase a hero shot over the abyss. The closing run along the cliffs, with the lighthouse at the tip of the headland and gannets wheeling below, is as dramatic a stretch as exists in golf. Play it within yourself, keep the camera ready, and you will leave with the round and the photographs of a lifetime.