Golf in the north of Scotland did not flourish as early as that in the south-east of Scotland.  Before the nineteenth century, golf was a winter game played when the grass was naturally short through grazing and there was no agricultural work or sea fishing to be done. The weather in the north is not as clement as in the south. Landowners in the 18th Century went to Edinburgh, not just for warmer city living, but also to deal with their children's education and legal affairs. From 1717, the St Andrews University term began on 20th October, so that 'gentlemen who had legal business in Edinburgh would be able to put their children to college beforehand'.

However, more humble golfers would have stayed and played in the north.  Court records of 1614 tell of soldiers stealing golf balls in Orkney, which are islands 10 miles north of the mainland of Scotland. Throughout the 17th Century, there are mentions in Court records of golf related incidents elsewhere on the north-east coast of Scotland including Banff, Elgin and Fraserburgh. However, these may relate to the 'short' form of golf discussed on the page on Oldest Golf Sites.

Early golf on Dornoch links is reputed to have started in 1616. Certainly in 1619, there is a record of £10 being spent for golfing equipment for the young Earl of Sutherland ‘ for bowes, arrows, golff clubbes, and balls with necessars for his L[ordship’s] exercise’.

His tutor and guardian was Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, who won the Silver Arrow archery competition in 1617 at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. In 1628, he wrote the ‘Genealogy of the Earls of Sutherland’, in which he enthused that the links at Dornoch were ‘the fairest and lairgist links (or grein fields) of any part of Scotland’ and ‘They do far surpasse the fields off Montrois or Saint andrews’. (sic)

This is first recorded instance of a golf travel book hyperbole.

Dornoch is an hour to the north of Inverness.  Golf tourism arrived when the railway line from Aberdeen to Inverness opened in 1858, though it did not reach Dornoch until 1903.  This coincided with the growing popularity of summer golf made possible by mechanical grass cutting devices and by the dedicated golf courses and hotels which were being built.

The Dornoch Golf Club held an inaugural meeting in the autumn of 1876, as a successor of the Sutherland Golfing Society, whose members also played at Golspie, further north up the coast. With the aid of Old Tom Morris, the first nine holes were laid out in the spring of 1877 and this was extended to eighteen holes in 1887.

Royal Dornoch

An early supporter of the golf club was the renown American Scot, Andrew Carnegie.  In 1867 he bought Skibo Castle, 4 miles from Dornoch, where he laid out his own 9 hole golf course. He had been a member of the one of the first US golf clubs, the St Andrews Golf Club of Yonkers, widely known as the 'Apple Tree Gang', because of the apple orchard where they played. 

The Royal accolade was granted to the Dornoch club in 1906.

Photograph of Royal Dornoch courtesy of Donald Ford Gallery, from whom prints of many Scottish golf courses can be obtained.

Details of the Championship Course and the Struie Course are available on the official website of the Royal Dornoch Golf Club.

Local accommodation and attractions available on the website of the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board.