County Sligo Golf Club (Rosses Point)

Colt’s links, with Benbulben on the skyline.

Rosses Point is a small village on a peninsula west of Sligo town, and County Sligo Golf Club has played golf on its grassland and dunes since 1894. The championship course, which most golfers simply call Rosses Point, is a Harry Colt links of elevated tees, raised plateau greens and big undulations, built with very little earth moved. Benbulben’s flat-topped ridge sits inland for much of the round. The club hosts the West of Ireland Championship every year, and the course was named Irish Golf Course of the Year at the 2024 Golf Course Awards.

County Sligo Golf Club (Rosses Point) green fees and tee times.

Visitors book online through the club’s BRS visitor page, which has separate calendars for the Colt links and the Bomore nine. The published 2027 rates set the shape of the week: Monday to Thursday is open to visitors at €370, while on Friday, Saturday and Sunday visitor golf starts at 1pm. Golf Ireland members book by email or phone rather than online, at rates on application. Societies and corporate days go through the office on +353 71 917 7134 or info@countysligogolfclub.ie. The published rates page does not state a handicap limit; older third-party listings mention proof of handicap, so carry a certificate. Buggies cost €60 and the club advises booking one in advance.

The round, in perspective.

George Combe laid out the first nine holes in 1894, Captain William Campbell took the course to 18 in 1906, and Harry Colt redesigned it in 1927. Colt’s plan is still the basis of the layout. In 2024 Martin Ebert built new greens on the 3rd, 5th and 12th and moved a number of bunkers. From the black tees the 2024 scorecard reads 7,157 yards, par 71. Every hole has a name: the 3rd, Metal Man, is a 588-yard par five from a tee where the club says five counties are visible on a clear day; the 5th, The Jump, is a 540-yard par five with a green rebuilt in 2024; and the 7th, Ewing’s Profile, is stroke index 1. The 9th is called Cast A Cold Eye, after the line on W. B. Yeats’s headstone at nearby Drumcliffe. The 17th, The Gallery, is a 470-yard par four and stroke index 2.

Know before you go.

Weekend visitors

Friday, Saturday and Sunday tee times from 1pm

Buggies

€60; book ahead

Electric trolley

€20

Club hire

€50

Make the trip work.

Midweek is the simple answer here, because weekend visitors cannot start before 1pm. A good rhythm is to arrive in the afternoon, play the Bomore nine for €80 to get a feel for the wind, then take a Tuesday or Wednesday morning slot on the Colt links. The day ticket, from €620, suits anyone who wants a second look at the back nine. Rates are published for 15 March to 15 November; for a winter visit, contact the office for terms. Spring trips should steer clear of Easter, when the course is given over to the West of Ireland Championship.

Ireland West Airport Knock is the nearest airport, roughly an hour’s drive south. Dublin is about three hours by road. Sligo station is the end of the line from Dublin Connolly, and Rosses Point is a short taxi ride north-west of the town along the shore of Sligo Harbour.

Where it is.

Nearby: 1. Enniscrone Golf Club (38 km) · 2. Donegal Golf Club (Murvagh) (42 km) · 3. Narin & Portnoo Links (60 km) · Compare all Sligo & Donegal tee times

Somewhere to settle in.

Sligo town has the widest choice and is a ten to fifteen minute drive from the first tee. The Glasshouse, a modern hotel on the Garavogue river in the town centre, is a convenient choice with restaurants on the doorstep. Rosses Point village itself has guesthouses and pubs within walking distance of the clubhouse, which suits a group that wants to leave the car behind. Strandhill, on the other side of the bay, is a surf village with self-catering houses and is handy if you are also booking Strandhill Golf Club.

Make a trip of it.

Strandhill Golf Club sits under Knocknarea on the south side of Sligo Bay, about twenty minutes away. Enniscrone is under an hour west along the coast, and the pair make an easy two-day trip. Off the course, Yeats is buried in Drumcliffe churchyard at the foot of Benbulben, and Lissadell House, the Gore-Booth family home, is a short drive further on. The climb to Queen Maeve’s cairn on top of Knocknarea takes about an hour up and back.

Find your season.

Colt links visitor fees are published for 15 March to 15 November; the Bomore nine is priced all year round. Long June evenings allow a late start after a day’s travel. The West of Ireland Championship, played here since 1923, now runs over Easter, from Good Friday qualifying to an Easter Tuesday final, so avoid that week.