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Holyhead Golf Club

Trearddur Bay, Isle of Anglesey · Designed by James Braid (1912) · Est. 1912

Holyhead Golf Club at Trearddur Bay, on Anglesey's Holy Island, grew out of a meeting at the Station Hotel in December 1910 called to establish "a good 18-hole golf links." The London & North Western Railway engaged James Braid — five-time Open champion and by then a master architect — to direct the layout; his first visit came in 1911, and fourteen holes opened in June 1912.

What Braid found was wild, rocky ground, and he used it beautifully. The links plays to 6,077 yards, par 71, set back a little from the sea over heather, gorse and outcrops of Holy Island rock, with tight, characterful holes that ask for strategy and precise iron play rather than brute length. It is a classic Braid design at a fraction of championship prices.

Trearddur Bay's beaches are close by, as are the South Stack lighthouse and its RSPB seabird cliffs — and, of course, the Holyhead ferry port, which makes this a fine first or last round on an Ireland–Wales golf trip.

Holes worth knowing

1The holes across the rocky heath — Braid routed the course over gorse and outcrops of Holy Island rock; precise, characterful golf with the sea beyond.
2The blind and semi-blind shots — the natural rock and slopes give several holes a quirky, old-fashioned character; trust the marker posts and commit to the line.

Highlights

James Braid links design (1912)
Wild Holy Island rock, gorse and heather
Superb value near Trearddur Bay
Handy for the Holyhead–Dublin ferry

Good to know

→A genuine James Braid design and superb value; the clubhouse bistro — fittingly, Braid's — makes a good post-round stop.
→It sits a little back from the sea over rock and heather; the ground is quirky and old-fashioned, so trust the blind lines and manage your misses.
→South Stack, minutes away, has a spectacular lighthouse and RSPB seabird cliffs — puffins, razorbills and choughs in season — one of the best wildlife spots in Wales.
→Trearddur Bay's beaches are on the doorstep, and Holyhead Mountain with the Iron Age hut circles above South Stack makes a fine walk.
→It is minutes from the Holyhead–Dublin ferry — a natural first or last round on an Ireland–Wales golf trip.