Scotland beyond the Old Course: four links bases worth the trip.
How to plan a Scottish links trip that does not depend on the Old Course ballot: East Lothian, Fife, Angus and the Highlands, with booking rules, train links and how to split the week.
Plan the trip so the ballot is a bonus.
The Old Course ballot is drawn only two days ahead, so a week built around it can unravel on the first morning. A better approach is to choose one or two bases, confirm the rounds that matter most, and treat a ballot win as a bonus day. Scotland makes this easy. Within two hours of Edinburgh you can reach four very different links regions, each with a course worth the flight on its own.
East Lothian: the car-free option.
North Berwick’s West Links is 35 minutes from Edinburgh Waverley by train, and the station is a ten-minute walk from the first tee. Visitor times run Monday to Thursday from 11am and on Sunday afternoons; there is no visitor golf on Fridays or Saturdays, so plan the week around that rather than discovering it on arrival. The 2027 visitor fee starts at £260 in March and rises to £360 from April. Gullane No. 1, Dunbar and the Glen are all within 20 minutes, and Muirfield takes visitors on set days. Stay in North Berwick or Edinburgh and you can play several rounds without hiring a car at all.
Fife: Kingsbarns as the anchor.
If St Andrews is the reason for the trip, make Kingsbarns the round you confirm first. Advance tee times for the following year open on 1 June, by phone or email, and the course needs no handicap certificate, only a willingness to keep pace. Rates run from £430 in spring 2027 to £524 from May, and higher still during Open week at St Andrews in July 2027, when every tee sheet in Fife will be under pressure. Kingsbarns closes for winter from November to late March, so a late-autumn trip needs a different anchor. Crail’s Balcomie Links and the other St Andrews Links courses fill the remaining days.
Angus: Carnoustie and its neighbours.
Carnoustie is the strongest single argument for heading north of the Tay. The station sits a short walk from the first tee, with direct trains from Edinburgh in about 90 minutes. The Championship Course needs a handicap certificate, with limits of 28 for men and 36 for women. A three-course ticket covering the Championship, Burnside and Buddon over three consecutive days is worth pricing if you want a few days in one place. Panmure and Monifieth are minutes away, and Montrose, one of the oldest courses in the world, is 25 minutes north. Carnoustie is also less than an hour from St Andrews, so a Fife base can reach it as a day trip.
The Highlands: Castle Stuart, Dornoch and the far north.
Inverness Airport changes the geography. Castle Stuart, now trading as Cabot Highlands, is five minutes from the terminal, with visitor rates from £285 in the shoulder months and £385 in the main season. Its cancellation terms are strict, with no refunds inside four weeks, so confirm dates before booking. Royal Dornoch is about 50 minutes north over the Dornoch Firth. For 2027 it is taking requests only by email, processed in the order received, and it publishes handicap guidance rather than a hard limit. Nairn, Brora, Golspie and Tain make a Highland loop of four or five days, with long summer evenings to enjoy them.
A note on the north-east.
Cruden Bay, 35 minutes from Aberdeen Airport, is a different kind of trip: wild dunes, no online booking and weekend visitor times only in the afternoon. Phone or email the club office directly. Pair it with Trump International at Menie, Royal Aberdeen or Murcar Links. It suits golfers who have already done Fife and want something quieter.
How to split a week.
For a first trip, choose two regions rather than four. Edinburgh suits East Lothian and Fife; Inverness suits Castle Stuart and Dornoch. Allow a travel day between them, because Edinburgh to Inverness is roughly three and a half hours by road or rail. Book the course with the strictest rules first, whether that is a handicap limit, a fixed visitor day or a booking window, and build the rest of the week around it. Then leave one day unplanned for weather, a ballot result or a second look at a course you loved.