Ballybunion Golf Club

Two links, one long ridge of dunes.

Ballybunion sits on the north Kerry coast where the Shannon estuary meets the Atlantic, and its two links run through some of the tallest sandhills in Ireland. The Old Course is the reason most golfers make the trip: a links that starts beside the village graveyard and then climbs onto cliffs above the beach. The Cashen, next door, is wilder and cheaper. Come for the Old Course, stay for the Cashen, and give the seaside town an evening of its own.

Ballybunion Golf Club green fees and tee times.

Visitors book directly with the club by phone (+353 68 27146) or by email to the reservations office. In the main season, which runs from mid-April to early October, the Old Course offers visitor tee times on weekday mornings only, Monday to Friday, excluding bank holiday Mondays. Weekend and afternoon play is kept for members. The Cashen takes visitors in the morning and afternoon. You will need a handicap certificate from your home club, with limits of 24 for men and 36 for women. Every group on the Old Course must take at least one caddie or forecaddie. Summer mornings fill early with tour operators, so if your dates are fixed, request your Old Course time before you commit to flights and book the Cashen around it.

The courses at Ballybunion Golf Club.

Old Course

The championship links and the one with the visitor demand. It is a walking course routed through and along the dunes, with the cliff-edge 11th and a strong run of par fours on the back nine. Visitor tee times are mornings only, Monday to Friday, in the main season, and every group needs a caddie or forecaddie.

Cashen Course

Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr and opened in 1984, the Cashen runs through even bigger dunes towards the Cashen river estuary. It is shorter but more severe, with narrow fairways and elevated greens that punish loose iron play. At €65 in 2026 it is one of the strongest-value links rounds in Kerry, and visitors can book it morning or afternoon.

The round, in perspective.

Golf was first laid out here in 1893. The Old Course owes much of its current shape to Tom Simpson and Molly Gourlay, who revised it in the 1930s, and it hosted the Irish Open in 2000. The first tee shot is played past the cemetery on the right, which tends to sharpen the mind. The early holes are relatively gentle; the round changes character from the 7th, when the routing reaches the shoreline. The 11th, a par four running along the clifftop with the beach below, is the hole most visitors remember, and the back nine threads between dunes rather than over them. Greens are small and often raised, so a running approach that misses by a few yards can roll well away. Expect firm turf and wind off the Atlantic on most days.

Make the trip work.

Ballybunion works best as two nights rather than a day trip. Play the Old Course on a weekday morning, then the Cashen that afternoon or the next day while your eye is in for links turf. Lahinch is an easy pairing to the north thanks to the Killimer–Tarbert car ferry across the Shannon estuary, which turns a long drive around Limerick into a 20-minute crossing. Tralee and Waterville are both south. North Kerry roads are narrow and slow, so leave proper gaps between tee times at different clubs.

Kerry Airport at Farranfore is the closest, about 50 minutes by road via Tralee. Shannon is roughly 90 minutes if you take the Killimer–Tarbert ferry, or about two hours driving round through Limerick. Dublin is close to four hours away. There is no useful rail link; a hire car or a driver is the practical option.

Where it is.

Nearby: 1. Tralee Golf Club (25 km) · 2. Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg (30 km) · 3. Dooks Golf Club (49 km) · 4. Lahinch Golf Club (54 km) · 5. Dromoland Castle Golf Club (61 km) · 6. The Golf Course at Adare Manor (61 km) · Compare all South West Ireland tee times

Somewhere to settle in.

Ballybunion itself has guesthouses, B&Bs and small hotels within a short drive of the club, plus pubs that are used to golfers coming in off the links. Listowel, about 15 minutes inland, is a larger market town with more hotel choice, including the Listowel Arms on the square. Groups splitting time between Ballybunion and Tralee or Waterville sometimes base in Tralee for better restaurant and accommodation options, accepting a drive of 40 minutes or so to the first tee.

Make a trip of it.

Tralee Golf Club, the Arnold Palmer links at Barrow, is under an hour south and makes a natural second day. Lahinch is just over an hour north via the Tarbert ferry, and Waterville sits at the far end of the Ring of Kerry. Off the course, Ballybunion’s seaweed baths are a local tradition on the beachfront, and Listowel is home to the Kerry Writers’ Museum, a good wet-afternoon option.

Find your season.

The visitor season for the Old Course runs from mid-April to early October; outside that, ask the office about winter availability. May, June and September tend to give the best balance of daylight and firmer ground. July and August are busiest with visiting groups, and the Atlantic wind is a constant in any month.