Ayrshire, Kintyre, Islay trip recap - July 2025

[brownm]

I am going to try and provide a short recap of our trip and give some advice based on what we learned, hope it's helpful as I used a lot of posts here when planning the trip and want to give back...

 

My brother (46yo, hcp1) and I (51yo, hcp5) started planning our trip to Scotland in the summer of 2024, for travel in the summer of 2025.  We have traveled extensively throughout the states for golf, but this was our first trip to the UK.  We decided that we wanted a little bit of an atypical trip, and decided that popular destinations like St. Andrews, Royal Dornoch, etc were not really what we wanted.  With the 2024 Open having been at Troon, we decided that we wanted to start on the west coast of Scotland and play Royal Troon and Prestwick as our lynchpins there.  We wanted something more unique, since everyone who comes back from a UK trip invariably has a story about how some small or quirky course was their favorite.  Therefore we decided to head west rather than east from Troon, and explore Arran, Kintyre, and Islay.  We also decided that we would not take any caddies, and took trolleys at every course (only 5-10 pounds).  Partly this was economics, but it really had more to do with wanting to spend some quality time together.  I just mention it to say that while a caddy may be helpful, it is definitely not mandatory for experienced golfers.

 

Since we hadn't been to Scotland before, we decided to utilize a booking company to help get the logistics straight.  This was most important for getting rounds at Prestwick and Royal Troon since they are golf clubs with limited visitor days.  That being said, if you are more experienced or willing to make more phone calls, I think our trip could have been done without the operator.  However, I will give a huge plug for Halcyon Golf Tavel.  A lot of the larger companies weren't interested in helping a small group, and it felt like the ones that were had preset itineraries which they tried to push.  Halcyon, on the other hand, asked a lot of questions during our initial Zoom, and really made us think about what we wanted and how we wanted the trip to feel.  I can't really think of anything that I would have asked them to do differently - the booking process, communication leading up to and during the trip, and quality of what they set up for us was top notch.

 

OK, here was our trip in a nutshell:

 

DAY 1:  Flew through Boston to Edinburgh on the redeye.  We drove ourselves, and never had any real issues driving in the UK.  I would recommend getting the rental car insurance, as Halcyon had suggested to us, since the roads are narrow and it felt like we beat the hell out of the passenger side of the car on the weeds and branches hanging over the side of the road!  We had originally planned for no golf on the day of arrival, but ultimately decided once we got there to go and play Prestwick St. Nicholas (recommended by Halcyon).  It was a perfect introduction to links golf, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  It also helped us get our body clocks flipped to Scottish time (+5 hours from the east coast).

 

DAY 2:  We stayed at the South Beach Hotel, a nice place for a few nights when playing Ayrshire courses.  An upgrade would have been The Marine Hotel, but I only would have spent up for that if this would have been a couples trip and we had brought our wives.  The South Beach had everything you need for a few nights, including surprisingly good food and a nice bar and outdoor beer garden.

We had a morning round at Prestwick.  Just a word of advice when playing the private clubs - give yourself enough time before and after to enjoy ther locker room (tytpoically better showers than the hotel), clubhouse, and restaurant/bar.  The staff and members made us feel very welcome every place we played.  Prestwick is a little quirky, but totally managelable withoput a caddy.  The course guide and a range finder gave us enough target lines and yardaghes.  A trip to this area that doesn't include Prestwick is a mistake in my mind.

 

DAY 3: Today we had an afternoon round scheduled at Royal Troon.  The weather wasn't great for doing any sightseeing, so we headed to the clubhouse at 1130 for our 240 tee time.  We hung out in the lounge and had a beer while watching the weather, and then had a light lunch before getting ready for our tee time.  This was the only round we were paired up, playing with a father and son from Vancouver.  The weather was OK until hole 10, when the spitting rain turned to a heavy drizzle.  Still mild from Scottish standards, but enough to make us dont the entire rain suit, and get us thoroughly wet regardless.  I will admit this did dampen our spirits for a few holes, which happen to be among the hardest at Troon, but by hole 12 we accepoted it and enjoyed th balanmce of the round.  A very nice hot shower after the round, a quick change of clothes, and another beer in the bar capped off the day at Troon,  And we headed to The Rabbit at the Marine Hotel (right next door) for dinner, and had probably our best meal of the trip. Just an excellent day...

 

DAY 4:  We had a morning round scheduled at Western Gailes, a short drive from the hotel.  This is an underrated course in my opinion, occupying really cool dunes between the railroad and the Firth.  It feels like you play low in these dunes most of the round, protecting you from what is typically a strong wind.  We caught a calm sunny day, and this was probably our best scoring conditions of the trip.  Once we finished, the weather was so nice that we needed another round.  We had seen ads for the upcoming Ladies Scottish Open at Dundonald, and were able to get on for a late afternoon tee time at a discount of 125 pounds.  We basically had the course to ourselves except for a few LET players and caddies walking the course and hitting some putts.  We had avoided scheduling 36 holes early in the trip, but both of these courses were very walkable and we didn't feel too tired by the end.  We ended the day with a trip to the Wee Hurrie for some quality fish and chips...

 

DAY 5:  We left Ayrshire on an early morning ferry to Arran to play the much vaunted Shiskine.  Navigating the ferry was easy, Halcyon had booked the tickets and times so we could play 2 rounds at Shiskine (12 hole course, remember).  Full disclosure here - I caught a little GI bug, and my brother caught a case of the sh@nks, so our round at Shiskine didn't live up to our expectations.  Here is what I would say, it is a beautiful island and the vistas from the course are amazing.  BUT, I don't know that the golf alone warrants the trip.  Again, if we had been in a different mindset and physical condition, you may be getting a different recap from me.  We actually bagged the secound round and headed across on ferry#2 for Kintyre.  Still a fun day, but a notch below the previous part of the trip.

 

DAY 6 and 7:  We checked into the Royal Hotel in Campbeltown for rounds at Machrihanish and Machrihanish Dunes.  These were my favorites of the trip, and we both said if we went back we would plant ourselves for a few days in this area and play these courses again, along with making a short trip to Dunaverty (which we couldn't fit in this time).  Machrihanish may be an ideal course and club to visit.  The course is classic links in a magnificent setting, with an opening tee shot reported as the best in the world.  This does live up to the hype.  And the clubhouse across the street is a modern building with a great locker room and restaurant.  We hung out for several hours having lunch and a few beers while watching the Open, talking with many members and other guests,  It just felt like a no-bullxxxx club that I'd love to be a part of...perfect IMO.  We took a quick tour of Springbank Distillery in the afternoon, well worth the 25 pound fee for a tour and a sampling at the end.  Mach Dunes was the next day, and it felt more remote despite being just up the road.  There is no fancy clubhouse, but the course is just a monster.  The front nine is meandering and challenging, but the back nine is a beast.  Save your energy for the finish, with long uphill walks into the prevailing wind.  This finish beat me down, but I'd love another crack.  FYI- Machrihanish advertises access to their clubhouse for 36 hours after playing their course, so we headed back to the clubhouse for a shower and change before heading to the ferry to Islay.

 

DAY 8 and 9:  We headed to Islay to stay and play at The Machrie.  This course has been reworked in recent years, and was more resort-like than the others.  The hotel was top notch, and a place I could see taking my wife for a vacation that included golf, rather than a primary golf vacation.  That being said, this was a nice ending with some luxury, great golf, and great food.  We played the course twice, with wildly different conditions each time making it feel like two different courses.  The course was exceptionally playable, with wider corridors and less penal high grass than the others, but still a stern test in the wind.  Islay is absolutely magnificent, and my only regret is that we didn't spend one more day allowing us to explore the other towns and distilleries nearby.  The people we met were friendly and welcoming...typical of everyone we met along the way.

 

DAY 10:  We took the ferry back across and headed on the long and winding road back to Edinburgh.  We didn't plan any golf along this part of the trip, and the weather and fatigue kept us from stopping and playing along the way.  The Loch Fyne Restaurant and Oyster bar was a nice stop back along the way near Inverary Castle.

 

If anyone has any questions, feel free to reply or DM me.  I don't claim to have all of the answers but I can certainly let you know what we think we did right and wrong.  It was the trip of a lifetime, and am so glad we finally did it after talking about it forever.

[hammergolf]

1 hour ago, brownm said:

I am going to try and provide a short recap of our trip and give some advice based on what we learned, hope it's helpful as I used a lot of posts here when planning the trip and want to give back...

 

My brother (46yo, hcp1) and I (51yo, hcp5) started planning our trip to Scotland in the summer of 2024, for travel in the summer of 2025.  We have traveled extensively throughout the states for golf, but this was our first trip to the UK.  We decided that we wanted a little bit of an atypical trip, and decided that popular destinations like St. Andrews, Royal Dornoch, etc were not really what we wanted.  With the 2024 Open having been at Troon, we decided that we wanted to start on the west coast of Scotland and play Royal Troon and Prestwick as our lynchpins there.  We wanted something more unique, since everyone who comes back from a UK trip invariably has a story about how some small or quirky course was their favorite.  Therefore we decided to head west rather than east from Troon, and explore Arran, Kintyre, and Islay.  We also decided that we would not take any caddies, and took trolleys at every course (only 5-10 pounds).  Partly this was economics, but it really had more to do with wanting to spend some quality time together.  I just mention it to say that while a caddy may be helpful, it is definitely not mandatory for experienced golfers.

 

Since we hadn't been to Scotland before, we decided to utilize a booking company to help get the logistics straight.  This was most important for getting rounds at Prestwick and Royal Troon since they are golf clubs with limited visitor days.  That being said, if you are more experienced or willing to make more phone calls, I think our trip could have been done without the operator.  However, I will give a huge plug for Halcyon Golf Tavel.  A lot of the larger companies weren't interested in helping a small group, and it felt like the ones that were had preset itineraries which they tried to push.  Halcyon, on the other hand, asked a lot of questions during our initial Zoom, and really made us think about what we wanted and how we wanted the trip to feel.  I can't really think of anything that I would have asked them to do differently - the booking process, communication leading up to and during the trip, and quality of what they set up for us was top notch.

 

OK, here was our trip in a nutshell:

 

DAY 1:  Flew through Boston to Edinburgh on the redeye.  We drove ourselves, and never had any real issues driving in the UK.  I would recommend getting the rental car insurance, as Halcyon had suggested to us, since the roads are narrow and it felt like we beat the hell out of the passenger side of the car on the weeds and branches hanging over the side of the road!  We had originally planned for no golf on the day of arrival, but ultimately decided once we got there to go and play Prestwick St. Nicholas (recommended by Halcyon).  It was a perfect introduction to links golf, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  It also helped us get our body clocks flipped to Scottish time (+5 hours from the east coast).

 

DAY 2:  We stayed at the South Beach Hotel, a nice place for a few nights when playing Ayrshire courses.  An upgrade would have been The Marine Hotel, but I only would have spent up for that if this would have been a couples trip and we had brought our wives.  The South Beach had everything you need for a few nights, including surprisingly good food and a nice bar and outdoor beer garden.

We had a morning round at Prestwick.  Just a word of advice when playing the private clubs - give yourself enough time before and after to enjoy ther locker room (tytpoically better showers than the hotel), clubhouse, and restaurant/bar.  The staff and members made us feel very welcome every place we played.  Prestwick is a little quirky, but totally managelable withoput a caddy.  The course guide and a range finder gave us enough target lines and yardaghes.  A trip to this area that doesn't include Prestwick is a mistake in my mind.

 

DAY 3: Today we had an afternoon round scheduled at Royal Troon.  The weather wasn't great for doing any sightseeing, so we headed to the clubhouse at 1130 for our 240 tee time.  We hung out in the lounge and had a beer while watching the weather, and then had a light lunch before getting ready for our tee time.  This was the only round we were paired up, playing with a father and son from Vancouver.  The weather was OK until hole 10, when the spitting rain turned to a heavy drizzle.  Still mild from Scottish standards, but enough to make us dont the entire rain suit, and get us thoroughly wet regardless.  I will admit this did dampen our spirits for a few holes, which happen to be among the hardest at Troon, but by hole 12 we accepoted it and enjoyed th balanmce of the round.  A very nice hot shower after the round, a quick change of clothes, and another beer in the bar capped off the day at Troon,  And we headed to The Rabbit at the Marine Hotel (right next door) for dinner, and had probably our best meal of the trip. Just an excellent day...

 

DAY 4:  We had a morning round scheduled at Western Gailes, a short drive from the hotel.  This is an underrated course in my opinion, occupying really cool dunes between the railroad and the Firth.  It feels like you play low in these dunes most of the round, protecting you from what is typically a strong wind.  We caught a calm sunny day, and this was probably our best scoring conditions of the trip.  Once we finished, the weather was so nice that we needed another round.  We had seen ads for the upcoming Ladies Scottish Open at Dundonald, and were able to get on for a late afternoon tee time at a discount of 125 pounds.  We basically had the course to ourselves except for a few LET players and caddies walking the course and hitting some putts.  We had avoided scheduling 36 holes early in the trip, but both of these courses were very walkable and we didn't feel too tired by the end.  We ended the day with a trip to the Wee Hurrie for some quality fish and chips...

 

DAY 5:  We left Ayrshire on an early morning ferry to Arran to play the much vaunted Shiskine.  Navigating the ferry was easy, Halcyon had booked the tickets and times so we could play 2 rounds at Shiskine (12 hole course, remember).  Full disclosure here - I caught a little GI bug, and my brother caught a case of the sh@nks, so our round at Shiskine didn't live up to our expectations.  Here is what I would say, it is a beautiful island and the vistas from the course are amazing.  BUT, I don't know that the golf alone warrants the trip.  Again, if we had been in a different mindset and physical condition, you may be getting a different recap from me.  We actually bagged the secound round and headed across on ferry#2 for Kintyre.  Still a fun day, but a notch below the previous part of the trip.

 

DAY 6 and 7:  We checked into the Royal Hotel in Campbeltown for rounds at Machrihanish and Machrihanish Dunes.  These were my favorites of the trip, and we both said if we went back we would plant ourselves for a few days in this area and play these courses again, along with making a short trip to Dunaverty (which we couldn't fit in this time).  Machrihanish may be an ideal course and club to visit.  The course is classic links in a magnificent setting, with an opening tee shot reported as the best in the world.  This does live up to the hype.  And the clubhouse across the street is a modern building with a great locker room and restaurant.  We hung out for several hours having lunch and a few beers while watching the Open, talking with many members and other guests,  It just felt like a no-bullxxxx club that I'd love to be a part of...perfect IMO.  We took a quick tour of Springbank Distillery in the afternoon, well worth the 25 pound fee for a tour and a sampling at the end.  Mach Dunes was the next day, and it felt more remote despite being just up the road.  There is no fancy clubhouse, but the course is just a monster.  The front nine is meandering and challenging, but the back nine is a beast.  Save your energy for the finish, with long uphill walks into the prevailing wind.  This finish beat me down, but I'd love another crack.  FYI- Machrihanish advertises access to their clubhouse for 36 hours after playing their course, so we headed back to the clubhouse for a shower and change before heading to the ferry to Islay.

 

DAY 8 and 9:  We headed to Islay to stay and play at The Machrie.  This course has been reworked in recent years, and was more resort-like than the others.  The hotel was top notch, and a place I could see taking my wife for a vacation that included golf, rather than a primary golf vacation.  That being said, this was a nice ending with some luxury, great golf, and great food.  We played the course twice, with wildly different conditions each time making it feel like two different courses.  The course was exceptionally playable, with wider corridors and less penal high grass than the others, but still a stern test in the wind.  Islay is absolutely magnificent, and my only regret is that we didn't spend one more day allowing us to explore the other towns and distilleries nearby.  The people we met were friendly and welcoming...typical of everyone we met along the way.

 

DAY 10:  We took the ferry back across and headed on the long and winding road back to Edinburgh.  We didn't plan any golf along this part of the trip, and the weather and fatigue kept us from stopping and playing along the way.  The Loch Fyne Restaurant and Oyster bar was a nice stop back along the way near Inverary Castle.

 

If anyone has any questions, feel free to reply or DM me.  I don't claim to have all of the answers but I can certainly let you know what we think we did right and wrong.  It was the trip of a lifetime, and am so glad we finally did it after talking about it forever.

GREAT TRIP! Thanks for sharing.

[MongoSmash]

Awesome trip. Interesting to hear your perspective. I thought Western Gailes was tough…but then again, I am a 9 cap who can be erratic off the tee. Not the recipe at Championship links

[jvincent]

@brownm good trip. We did a very similar itinerary in May. We started at Machrihanish / Mac Dunes and then headed to Ayrshire.

 

Gailes/Western Gailes had a tournament the days we were there so we ended up playing Dundonald, Barassie, and Irvine, in addition to Troon and Prestwick.

 

Our group really enjoyed Barassie. The two Gailes are on the list for next time.

[tad950]

Too bad you missed Dunaverty. A hoot to play. And I agree with your opinion of Machrihanish and Dunes. Too bad it’s such a long, not easy drive.

 

Some say the whiskey from Islay is the best in the world. 
 

p,s. One of the young guns in our group aced 14 (?), a par 4 at Machrihanish Dunes.

Edited July 29 by tad950

[jatrain]

Great trip, loved hearing about it basically the exact trip I’ve had in my head for 2026 or 2027.  Thanks!

[scott_Donald]

great writeup, glad you had a fun trip.

 

What is your next UK trip?

[spud3]

Excellent trip report.  Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

 

Thinking of a similar trip for next September.  How were the rooms at the Royal Hotel and the Machrie?

Edited August 1 by spud3

[brownm]

4 hours ago, spud3 said:

Excellent trip report.  Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

 

Thinking of a similar trip for next September.  How were the rooms at the Royal Hotel and the Machrie?

The Royal Hotel was very nice, larger rooms and a great shower.  Campbeltown was a nice little town. But I think next time we would opt for the Ugadale Hotel which was right across the street from Machrihanish. 
 

The Machrie hotel was luxury, but honestly our double room was a little small and the shower was just ok. But the hotel and especially the food were outstanding, and I’d stay there again in a heartbeat.