10 Scottish links we'd play before the famous ones

There are certain names you're supposed to play when you come to Scotland.

The Old Course. Carnoustie. Turnberry. Muirfield. Royal Dornoch.

And you should. They're famous for good reason.

But some of our favourite days playing golf in Scotland have very little to do with grandstands, Open Championships or ticking another name off a list.

They're the places where the clubhouse is small, the welcome is good and you spend half the round wondering why nobody told you about the place before.

Here are ten we'd happily play before some of the famous ones.

1. Shiskine, Isle of Arran

Let's start with a golf course that doesn't even bother having 18 holes.

Shiskine has twelve. And we'd take those twelve over an awful lot of eighteen-hole courses.

It's on the western side of Arran, with the Kilbrannan Sound on one side and the hills rising behind it. There are blind shots, strange bounces, tiny greens and holes that wouldn't get anywhere near the planning committee of a modern golf resort.

That's precisely the point.

You can play it in a couple of hours, have something in the clubhouse and still have most of the afternoon ahead of you.

Arran itself is worth staying for. Take the ferry over, rent a house for a few nights, play a few of the island's seven courses, visit the distillery at Lochranza, eat seafood and get out on the water.

Shiskine might be the excuse for going. Arran is the reason we'd stay.

2. Elie, Fife

Being a few miles down the road from St Andrews isn't particularly helpful if you're trying to get noticed.

But Elie doesn't seem especially bothered.

The course runs along the Fife coast through wonderfully firm, rumpled ground, with the sea appearing and disappearing throughout the round.

There are no par fives. The first tee sits beside a submarine periscope that's used to check whether the fairway is clear. And the whole place feels reassuringly uninterested in trying to impress you.

Stay for lunch. Have a pint. Drive slowly back around the coast.

St Andrews will still be there tomorrow.

3. Dunbar, East Lothian

East Lothian has an almost unreasonable amount of good golf.

Most visitors arrive with North Berwick and Muirfield already circled. Dunbar tends to get whatever space is left on the itinerary.

We'd make space.

After the opening holes, the course squeezes itself between farmland, an old stone wall and the North Sea. You're basically playing along the coastline for the rest of the afternoon.

When the wind gets up, which it has a habit of doing, it's proper links golf.

And afterwards you're in one of the best parts of Scotland for a golf trip. Great pubs, fishing villages, seafood and more excellent courses than you could reasonably play in a week.

4. Machrihanish

Getting to Machrihanish requires commitment.

That's part of its appeal.

You're heading down the Kintyre Peninsula, seemingly further and further away from everything, until eventually you reach a small village and one of the great opening tee shots in golf.

The first asks you how much of the Atlantic beach you're prepared to take on. From there, the course disappears into enormous dunes.

But we'd never drive all the way down here, play golf and immediately leave.

This is somewhere to disappear for a couple of days. Whisky at Springbank. Seafood in Campbeltown. Another round at Machrihanish Dunes. A pub afterwards.

The remoteness isn't an inconvenience.

It's the whole idea.

5. Brora, Highlands

There are electric fences around some of the greens at Brora.

Not to keep golfers out.

To keep the sheep and cattle off.

That probably tells you most of what you need to know.

This is old-fashioned Highland golf in the best possible sense. Firm ground, sea views, straightforward-looking holes that become considerably less straightforward once the wind arrives.

There's nothing overdone about it.

And Brora makes even more sense as part of a slow trip through the Highlands. Drive north, stop in small towns, eat somewhere good, drink whisky and don't worry too much about how quickly you're getting anywhere.

Some golf trips are better when they're slightly inconvenient.

6. Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire

Cruden Bay feels like someone found a spectacular piece of duneland and decided it would be a shame to make the golf too sensible.

There are blind approaches, elevated tees, enormous dunes and greens hidden in places you wouldn't necessarily think to look for them.

It's brilliant.

The coastline up here is equally good. Fishing villages, castles, cold beaches and the sort of roads that make you forget you're meant to be getting somewhere.

This is one we'd build a couple of days around rather than squeeze between bigger names.

7. Western Gailes, Ayrshire

Ayrshire tends to mean one thing to travelling golfers: Royal Troon.

Maybe Prestwick too, if they've done their homework.

Western Gailes deserves to be part of that conversation.

It's a narrow strip of proper linksland wedged between the railway and the Firth of Clyde. The wind is almost always relevant, the turf is exactly what you came to Scotland for and there are very few forgettable holes.

There's also something particularly good about finishing a round here and heading somewhere for a whisky while everyone argues about which hole ruined their card.

Which, to us, is roughly what a Scottish golf trip should look like.

8. Gullane No. 2, East Lothian

Gullane No. 1 gets the attention.

We have a lot of time for No. 2.

The course climbs Gullane Hill, giving you huge views across the Firth of Forth before sending you back towards the village.

It's fun, quick and wonderfully Scottish.

More importantly, Gullane is the sort of place where golf doesn't feel separate from the rest of the day. You can walk off the course, find a pub and start discussing whether another eighteen tomorrow is sensible.

It usually is.

9. Fortrose & Rosemarkie, Black Isle

This might be one of the best settings for golf in Scotland.

The course occupies a narrow piece of land sticking out into the Moray Firth, with water seemingly everywhere and the Chanonry lighthouse sitting beside it.

Dolphins regularly pass through the firth. The Highlands sit beyond. The golf itself is fast, quirky and very easy to enjoy.

Then there's the Black Isle.

Good pubs. Small villages. Local breweries. Seafood. Inverness nearby.

You could very happily come up here for several days and forget about chasing the famous names altogether.

10. Askernish, South Uist

Askernish is probably the least sensible course on this list to include in a normal Scottish golf itinerary.

Which is exactly why it's here.

You're in the Outer Hebrides.

The course was originally laid out by Old Tom Morris in the 1890s, largely disappeared, and was eventually brought back to life more than a century later.

There's nothing polished about the experience. Huge dunes, Atlantic wind, enormous skies and a feeling that you've travelled a very long way to hit a small white ball around somewhere extraordinary.

And that's the point.

Fly or ferry out. Stay a few nights. Eat whatever came out of the sea that morning. Drive around South Uist. Walk beaches with almost nobody on them.

Then play golf.

The famous ones aren't going anywhere

We'd never seriously tell someone to come to Scotland for the first time and deliberately avoid St Andrews.

Walking through the town with your clubs, having a caddie tell you where not to hit it on the Old Course and having a pint afterwards is still one of the great experiences in golf.

But Scotland gets much more interesting once you stop treating it as a checklist.

Take the ferry to Arran.

Drive too far down the Kintyre Peninsula.

Spend a few nights in East Lothian.

Go north.

Go to an island.

Play twelve holes instead of eighteen.

The courses you'll talk about most when you get home might not be the ones everyone asked whether you played.