Bucket ListChampionship VenueLinks Classic

Castle Stuart Golf Links (Cabot Highlands)

Inverness, Highland · Designed by Mark Parsinen & Gil Hanse (2009) · Est. 2009

Castle Stuart is the modern star of Highland golf — a links opened in 2009 on the shore of the Moray Firth, designed by the American developer-architect Mark Parsinen (of Kingsbarns fame) with Gil Hanse, who has since become the most sought-after course designer in the world. Every hole plays toward water or a landmark: the Moray Firth, the Kessock Bridge, the Chanonry lighthouse and, inland, the 17th-century Castle Stuart itself.

It is a big, generous, beautiful course — par 72 over 7,000 yards, with wide fairways and dramatic infinity greens perched above the sea, built on a philosophy of "playable for everyone, testing for the best." It proved the point by hosting the Scottish Open three years running, from 2011 to 2013, and again in 2016. Now part of the Cabot group and renamed Cabot Highlands, it anchors a growing resort with a second course on the way.

Castle Stuart sits ten minutes east of Inverness Airport, which makes it — with Nairn and Royal Dornoch — the cornerstone of a superb and surprisingly accessible Highland links trip.

Holes worth knowing

118th (par-5) — a reachable closing hole climbing to a green set high above the firth beneath the clubhouse, with the Kessock Bridge and Inverness beyond. Built for a dramatic finish, as three Scottish Opens showed.

Highlights

Mark Parsinen & Gil Hanse modern links (2009)
Scottish Open host 2011–2013 & 2016
Infinity greens above the Moray Firth — now Cabot Highlands

Good to know

→The setting is spectacular — infinity greens above the Moray Firth, the Kessock Bridge and the 17th-century castle in view. Play it on a clear day.
→It is now part of the Cabot group as Cabot Highlands, with a second course being developed — check the latest when you book.
→Ten minutes from Inverness Airport, it is the easiest world-class links to reach in the Highlands.
→Wide fairways make it playable for all levels, but the infinity greens and the firth wind keep the good player honest.
→Castle Stuart (now Cabot Highlands) hosted four Scottish Opens and has a second, Tom Doak-designed course on the way; Inverness, gateway to the Highlands and Loch Ness, is 15 minutes west.

Visitor Information

Getting There

10min drive

Common questions

Who designed Castle Stuart, and when did it open?

It opened in 2009, designed by the American developer-architect Mark Parsinen (also behind Kingsbarns) with Gil Hanse, now among the most sought-after architects in the world. It hosted the Scottish Open three years running from 2011 to 2013 (and again in 2016), and is now part of the Cabot group, renamed Cabot Highlands, with a second course being developed.

Is Castle Stuart a hard course?

It is deliberately generous — wide fairways and a philosophy of "playable for everyone, testing for the best." But the dramatic infinity greens perched above the Moray Firth and the wind off the water keep the good player honest. It is ten minutes from Inverness Airport, the easiest world-class links to reach in the Highlands.