Affordable golf in Ireland: the best value courses

Everyone knows the €200-plus names. Fewer know that you can play links and parkland on the same coastlines, over the same firm, fast turf, for €25 to €65 a round — and that a lot of it is every bit as good as the courses charging four times more. Ireland is full of quiet members' clubs that have never chased the tourist euro, and if you are happy to skip the famous logo on the scorecard, your money goes an extraordinarily long way. Every course below is one we would happily play any day of the week.

Links golf is Ireland's glory and you do not have to pay through the nose for it. On the Dingle Peninsula, Castlegregory (about €40) is a wild little nine-times-two between the mountains and the sea. In the southeast, Rosslare (€60) has quietly held its value for a century, and Seapoint (€60), right next door to the far pricier County Louth, gives you a dramatic dune finish for a third of the money.

Up north, where a round at Portrush runs into the hundreds, Ballycastle (€45) is minutes away with views to Rathlin Island, and Donaghadee (€32) on the Ards Peninsula is one of the best-value tee times on the island. In the west, Bundoran (€50), a Harry Vardon links above the Donegal surf, and Kilkee (€35) in Clare finish the tour.

Inland is where you find the sharpest value of all. In the midlands, Esker Hills(€40) — an early Christy O'Connor Jnr design over dramatic glacial ridges — is one of the best rounds in the country for the money, and Glasson (€55) on Lough Ree gives you championship parkland and a famous island green for well under resort prices. Down in Kilkenny, Gowran Park is remarkable at around €25, and Greenore (€55) on Carlingford Lough is the sort of quirky, tree-lined charmer everyone falls for once they find it.

Even the famous names come down in price if you are clever about it. Green fees bottom out from November through March, and the shoulder months — April, May, September, October — are far cheaper than peak summer while the ground and the weather are often better. And almost everywhere, twilight rates from late afternoon can halve a premium fee — a 4pm tee time in June still gives you a full round in the long Irish evenings. See when to visit and what a trip costs to budget it, and our hidden gems guide for more quiet rounds.

For a midlands value trip stay in Athlone; for the southeast links, Rosslare; for the Dingle courses, Tralee. The planner will build a value week around whichever corner you pick.