A golf weekend on the North Coast

If you have two days and want the most links golf per mile in Ireland, the Causeway Coast wins. Three championship links — Royal Portrush, Portstewart and Castlerock — sit within about six miles of each other on the Antrim–Derry border, so you can play a different one each day and never spend more than fifteen minutes in the car between your bed and the first tee. It is an hour up the motorway from Belfast and a bit under three from Dublin, which makes it the rare golf trip you can do on a normal weekend without taking a day off.

A word on money and expectations: this is not a cheap weekend if you play Portrush, and it is worth being honest about that. But two of the three courses cost a fraction of it and are genuinely worth the trip on their own, so you can dial the budget up or down without dropping the quality.

Royal Portrush (Dunluce) hosted The Open in 2019 and again in 2025, when Scottie Scheffler won by four. It is a Harry Colt routing along the Antrim cliffs, and the hole everyone talks about is the 16th, “Calamity Corner” — a 236-yard par three across a deep ravine, into wind, with nothing but a chasm to the right. At the 2019 Open only 41% of the field found the green; you will do well to make three.

The honest bit: green fees here run into the hundreds and weekend visitor tee times are limited and go months ahead — the club protects weekends for members, so midweek is easier if you can flex. Book direct through the club as far out as you can. If it does not come off, do not treat the weekend as ruined: Portstewart next door is a serious course in its own right, and far easier to get.

Portstewart (Strand)gets talked about as the “value” option, which undersells it. Its opening seven holes were cut through the towering dunes of Thistly Hollow and opened in 1992, and they are as dramatic as anything on the coast — the 1st, “Tubber Patrick,” drops from an elevated tee to a fairway hemmed by sandhills with the River Bann and the beach beyond. Portstewart hosted the 2017 Irish Open (Jon Rahm won it with a closing eagle), so this is a championship links, not a warm-up. At roughly a third of Portrush's fee, it is the round most people remember.

For your second day, Castlerock (around £80) is the pick — a proper old links across the Bann estuary from Portstewart, with the Mussenden Temple perched on the cliff above. Its signature is the par-three 4th, “Leg o' Mutton”: 200 yards over a burn that cuts diagonally in front of the green, with a railway line waiting to the right. Miss it either way and you are reloading.

If you would rather keep the drive short and the fee low, Ballycastle (around £45) is twenty-odd minutes east — a friendly, walkable links with the ruined friary beside the 1st and views across to Rathlin Island and the Mull of Kintyre on a clear day. It is the least demanding of the four and all the more pleasant for it.

Stay in Portrush itself — it is walkable, has the most places to eat, and puts you minutes from every course. Rooms fill fast on Open-legacy weekends and during the North West 200 road race in May, so book the bed before the tee times. Browse hotels in Portrush or quieter Portstewart next door.

Leave the last afternoon for the Causeway Coast: the Giant's Causeway is ten minutes from the first tee, the Bushmills distillery — the oldest licensed whiskey in the world — is closer still, and the coast road past Dunluce Castle is worth the detour on its own. For more on the region, see our Northern Ireland golf guide, or let the planner pull the courses, base and hotels together for you.