A golf weekend in East Lothian

East Lothian markets itself as “Scotland's Golf Coast” and, for once, the tourist slogan is dead right: more than a dozen links crammed into the twenty-odd miles of coast east of Edinburgh, with the airport only forty minutes from the first tees. You can base in one town, walk to some of the golf and drive ten minutes to the rest, and never repeat a course all weekend. It is, for my money, the most efficient links weekend in Britain.

Muirfield is the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, the oldest organised club in the game, and it is routed unlike almost anywhere else: two concentric loops, the front nine running clockwise round the outside and the back nine anti-clockwise inside it, so the wind never troubles you from the same angle two holes in a row. It is widely reckoned the fairest championship test in golf — everything in front of you, nothing hidden. Visitor tee times are limited to certain days and it keeps its old traditions (a jacket-and-tie lunch among them), so apply well in advance and read the rules before you go. If it does not come off, do not sulk — you are five minutes from one of the most joyful links anywhere.

North Berwick's West Links is the opposite of Muirfield's severity and every bit as good in its own way — ancient, quirky, played over stone walls and around beaches with the Bass Rock offshore. Two holes alone are worth the trip: the par-three 15th, the original “Redan,” the most copied hole in golf, and the 13th, the “Pit,” whose green sits just behind an ancient three-foot stone wall that has been wrecking scorecards for over a century. Play it with a smile. If you have a third round in you,Gullane No. 1 climbs Gullane Hill to a 7th tee with one of the great views in golf, out over the whole Firth of Forth.

For a round that is easier on the diary and the wallet, Dunbarruns along a narrow shelf of rock right at the sea's edge — the waves genuinely in play, a lighthouse and a ruined castle for company — and it is one of the most underrated links on the coast. The modern Craigielaw nearby is another easy-to-book, high-quality option to round out a weekend.

North Berwick is the ideal base — a handsome Victorian seaside town with the West Links running along the front, good pubs and an easy train to Edinburgh if you want a night in the city. Gullane is the more golf-soaked alternative, with three courses and Muirfield on the doorstep. See our full East Lothian golf guide, or let the planner line the weekend up.