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Where to Play in Aberdeenshire
Main image: The 6th hole at Cruden Bay.
Cruden Bay Golf Club
Cruden Bay is a traditional Scottish links golf course, originally designed by Tom Morris and Archie Simpson, and only two hours’ drive from St Andrews, the “Home of Golf”. Set against a backdrop of subtly contoured greens and magnificent panoramic views, the course is flanked on one side by a glorious stretch of white sand and overlooked by the brooding Slains Castle, alleged inspiration for Count Dracula’s Castle in Bram Stoker’s grisly tale.
Yardage 6287 Par 70
http://www.crudenbaygolfclub.co.uk/
Murcar Golf Club
One of the absolute jewels of the east of Scotland, that tends to get overlooked, the testing Murcar links has hosted many national amateur and professional championships. Murcar Links frequently features in the Top 100 courses in the UK and is in the VisitScotland Top 40 Great Scottish Links Collection as evidenced by the fact that in 2005, it hosted pre-qualifying for the British Senior Open. This is a great course to combine with Cruden Bay when in the north east.
Yardage 6303 Par 71
Royal Aberdeen
Records go back to 1589 as to golf activity at this club. The sixth oldest club in the world. This is a very tough course with gorse from the 6th onwards compounding the test to golfers. Royal Aberdeen much to its credit has been firm in its efforts to preserve old ways. A true Scottish Links. Host to the 2011 Walker Cup and 2014 Scottish Open Championship.
Yardage 6861 Par. 66
http://www.royalaberdeengolf.com/
Trump International Golf Links
The golf course follows a classic pattern of two out-and-back loops of nine holes. All 18 holes thread their way engagingly through the dunes, rising here to find views of the sea and coastline, plunging there into secluded valleys, offering a sequence of superlative topographies, landscapes, alternating between spaciousness and enclosure, then panoramic view, and the whole time a rich texture of vegetation and wildlife habitats surrounding the golf holes.