Scheduled · publishes 1 January 2099
Travel & Holidays
Aberdeenshire Golf Guide: Cruden Bay and Beyond on a Budget
Aberdeenshire has Cruden Bay — one of the great links in Scotland — and a ring of excellent courses around it that most visitors never bother to find. Here's the full guide to playing the northeast on a sensible budget.
The northeast of Scotland is the part of the country that gets overlooked in golf trip planning because Royal Dornoch is further north and St Andrews is further south, and visitors tend to anchor on one or the other and not go east. This is a straightforward piece of misevaluation.
Aberdeenshire has Cruden Bay — a top-fifteen course in Scotland by any serious reckoning — plus Royal Aberdeen (Balgownie), Murcar, Royal Tarlair, and a collection of smaller links that charge under £50 and play through genuinely spectacular coastal terrain. Aberdeen city is a 35-minute drive from Cruden Bay and has its own municipal courses at Kings Links. The infrastructure for a golf trip is straightforward.
The headline course: Cruden Bay
Cruden Bay Golf Club sits at the village of Cruden Bay, 25 miles north of Aberdeen, on a strip of coastline that looks like something a novelist might invent and a golf architect might pray for. The course was designed by Tom Simpson and Herbert Fowler in 1926 — Simpson is the architect responsible for Morfontaine and Ferndown, courses that appear on every serious European ranking — and it uses the enormous natural dunes of the Bay of Cruden in a routing that has no obvious equivalent in Scotland.
The 9th and 14th holes are the ones most written about — both played through or over enormous dunes, both requiring a degree of local knowledge to play well. The par-3 15th, Whins, is the short hole that decides handicaps. The ruins of Slains Castle stand on the cliffs beyond the 16th, and Bram Stoker, who holidayed in Cruden Bay while writing Dracula, is thought to have used the castle as the basis for the fictional one.
Green fee: £150–£180 depending on season. Visitors welcome weekdays; weekends can be arranged with advance booking. Caddies available and genuinely useful — the lines from the tees are not obvious. The Port Erroll Hotel in the village is the closest accommodation.
The Aberdeen city courses
The city itself — including the King's Links municipal course and the parkland clubs most visitors miss — is covered in full in our Aberdeen golf guide. The two headline links are on the dunesland just north of the centre.
Royal Aberdeen Golf Club — Balgownie Links (£175–£265)
Royal Aberdeen was founded in 1780 — sixth-oldest golf club in the world — and the Balgownie Links is its championship course. The layout runs along a narrow strip of dunesland between Aberdeen Bay and the King's Links, with a routing that keeps the sea relevant on the outward half and the higher dune ridges relevant on the inward.
The 8th and 9th, played into the back of the dune system before turning for home, are the hardest consecutive holes on the course. James Braid revised the layout in 1925, and the work he did on the bunkering of those two holes is among the most demanding he produced anywhere in Scotland.
Visitor green fee: £175–£265. Handicap certificate required (24/36). Caddies strongly advised. Silverburn Links, the second course, is shorter and useful for a second day.
Murcar Golf Club (£115–£195)
Murcar sits immediately alongside Royal Aberdeen on the same strip of dunesland — a wall and a couple of hundred metres of dune separate them. The course is older than its reputation suggests (1909, extended by Archie Simpson), and it offers a different experience from Balgownie: tighter fairways, a more natural feel, less maintenance budget, and a green fee that comes in below the Royal Aberdeen rate.
Visitors regularly say they prefer Murcar to Royal Aberdeen for the rough-and-ready authenticity of it. The 5th, Doocot, is the standout hole — a downhill par 4 played towards the sea, with out-of-bounds along the right and rough that doesn't negotiate.
Visitor green fee: £115–£195. Good visitor access; book by phone or via the club website.
Kings Links, Aberdeen (£20–£28)
Aberdeen's municipal links course on the seafront north of the city. Five-hole approach for beginners (the Fittie 5), a nine-hole course, and the full 18-hole layout. Green fees are municipal rates — under £30 for the 18-hole round. The condition isn't Royal Aberdeen, but it's genuine links terrain and an honest round. Useful if you're spending a day in the city and want to play something without the budget of the main courses.
Beyond Aberdeen: the budget circuit
Royal Tarlair, Macduff (£20–£30)
Royal Tarlair is a clifftop links on the Moray Firth, 50 miles north of Aberdeen. Opened 1926, 5,866 yards, par 71. The 13th hole — Clayholes — is a par 3 played across a rocky chasm to a green on a cliff promontory above the sea. It is one of the most visually dramatic short holes in Scottish golf, and it alone justifies the drive.
Green fee: £20–£30. Walk-in is usually possible without advance booking. The course is run by Macduff town council and the facilities are modest; the course itself is exceptional.
Peterhead Golf Club (£60–£125)
Scotland's most easterly links, on the coast north of Cruden Bay. James Braid layout, 18 holes, par 70. Seafront holes on the outward nine, inland on the return. Good condition for the price; visitor access is easy and the tee times are rarely full outside school holidays.
Stonehaven Golf Club (£30–£45)
Clifftop links 15 miles south of Aberdeen. Founded 1888, 18 holes, par 66. On the shorter side, with some spectacular clifftop holes and a setting that delivers views well above the green fee. The 14th is played along the cliff edge above the Kincardine sea stacks.
A 3-day Aberdeenshire itinerary
Day 1: Drive to Cruden Bay. Morning round at Cruden Bay Golf Club (£165). Afternoon: walk the coastal path to Slains Castle. Stay in Cruden Bay or drive into Aberdeen (40 minutes).
Day 2: Royal Aberdeen Balgownie in the morning (£185). Murcar in the afternoon if legs allow (£115). Or Murcar only if the budget is more cautious.
Day 3: Royal Tarlair in the morning (£25) — a long drive (55 minutes from Aberdeen) but the 13th hole repays it. Return via Kings Links for a casual extra nine if energy permits. Return to Aberdeen or drive south.
Total without accommodation: Cruden Bay + Balgownie + Royal Tarlair = £375. With Murcar instead of Balgownie: £305.
Getting to Aberdeenshire
By car from Edinburgh: A90 to Aberdeen (2.5 hours); Cruden Bay a further 35 minutes north. Car essential for combining multiple courses.
By train to Aberdeen: Regular service from Edinburgh (2.5 hours); from Aberdeen, car hire is essential. The local bus service connects Aberdeen to some coastal villages but not on a schedule that works for golf tee times.
Fly to Aberdeen: Regular flights from London (1 hour), Dublin, Amsterdam, and other European hubs. Aberdeen Airport is 10 minutes from the city centre.
For the Cruden Bay course in detail: Cruden Bay Golf Club Review. For the full northeast coast: the Moray Golf Guide covering Lossiemouth, Cullen and the coastal courses is publishing soon.
About the author
Gary
Editor and founder of Birdie Brae. Based in Glasgow, 14.5 handicap, playing since 2022. Has played 40+ Scottish courses and started this site because most Scottish golf content is written by people trying to sell you a package holiday.
More about Gary →Courses in this article
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