Golf Near Edinburgh: 15 Courses Within 45 Minutes

Fifteen courses inside a 45-minute drive of the city centre, from the city's own munis out to the East Lothian coast. Green fees render from our course register, so they change when the clubs' published rates do; drive times are from Tollcross in the city centre. For the city's own courses on their own, see the Edinburgh golf hub.

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Braid Hills No. 1 — £41. Drive: 14 minutes.

The city's hill course: views over the Pentlands one side and the Forth the other, with the city in the middle. Exposed, so the wind decides a lot of the round. Our hole-by-hole guide covers it in detail.

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Carrick Knowe — £36.50. Drive: 12 minutes.

Flat and simple, with the calm of a muni in the middle of a big city: nobody here is trying to impress anybody. The short par-4 7th plays its full length anyway.

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Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society — £60–£220. Drive: 13 minutes.

Members' club, established 1761, now at Davidson's Mains in the leafier north-west of the city. Parkland of the most settled type — wide fairways, mature trees, a stream that crosses the 4th and 14th. Membership is wait-listed; visitor access is by phone in advance.

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Musselburgh Old Links — £20–£25. Drive: 22 minutes.

Nine holes, because that's all it has. The course sits inside the horse-racing circuit, and the rail borders two of the fairways. Hickory clubs are available for hire.

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Royal Burgess Golfing Society — £135–£200. Drive: 13 minutes.

The other ancient club at Davidson's Mains, separated from Bruntsfield by a hedge and several centuries of polite rivalry. Royal Burgess claims founding in 1735; documented history is murkier than that, but the modern course is properly old. Visitor access by phone or member introduction.

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Duddingston — £40–£120. Drive: 8 minutes.

Parkland right under Arthur's Seat, and better than most visitors expect — contoured, with mature trees and a burn that comes into play on three holes. Worth it for the location alone.

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Mortonhall — £60–£130. Drive: 18 minutes.

On the south side of the city with the Pentlands rising up beyond the 14th.

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Ratho Park — £40–£65. Drive: 22 minutes.

A James Braid layout west of the airport, founded 1928. The 8th tee gives a view of departing aircraft climbing out over your right shoulder. Parkland in the gentle Edinburgh-suburbs sense: nothing dramatic, nothing offensive. A large practice ground at the front of the property. Visitor access by phone.

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Longniddry — £70–£140. Drive: 30 minutes.

Half-links, half-parkland, halfway to Gullane.

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Royal Musselburgh — £45–£65. Drive: 25 minutes.

Founded 1774, one of the oldest golf clubs in the world (depending on how you count). The current course is at Prestongrange House, a few miles east of the original Musselburgh links: parkland, with the 18th climbing gently to a clubhouse with a view back across the firth to Fife.

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Craigielaw — £60–£160. Drive: 35 minutes.

A modern links (opened 2001) at Aberlady that plays as if it has had far longer to settle. Buggies are worth considering if hills early in the round don't appeal.

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Kilspindie — £90–£170. Drive: 35 minutes.

The other Aberlady course, a short distance west of Craigielaw, founded 1867, on land that runs out to the bay. Short — under 5,500 yards — and beloved by the local membership for that fact. The 6th tee shot crosses a sliver of the bay; on a windless day it is a wedge, in the prevailing south-westerly it can be a long iron.

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North Berwick West Links — £220–£320. Drive: 42 minutes.

Right on the 45-minute edge. The 13th green ("Pit") is as peculiar as everybody says, and the 15th is the Redan. Ask the club about later tee times in the long summer evenings.

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Dunbar — £120–£225. Drive: 45 minutes — the outer edge of the brief.

Old Tom Morris (1856), east of Dunbar town. The back nine runs along the cliff edge with the firth filling the right-hand side of the tee shots, and the Bass Rock across the water on a clear day.

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Haddington — £65–£85. Drive: 30 minutes.

Parkland on the edge of the market town, and usually quiet. East Lothian gets busy by July, so the spring weeks are the easy time to get a game.

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What we'd play first if you only had a weekend

Different needs. The honest two-round shortlist:

• For a first-time visitor wanting one premium round and one cheap round: North Berwick West Links on the Saturday (£220–£320), Carrick Knowe (£36.50) or Braid Hills (£41) on the Sunday.
• For a local with a friend visiting from England: Mortonhall on the Saturday morning, Duddingston on the Sunday afternoon. Both within twenty minutes of the city centre.
• For a properly hilly mid-budget weekend: Mortonhall on the Saturday, Ratho Park on the Sunday.
• For a value play: Carrick Knowe + Braid Hills + Musselburgh Old Links across a single weekend.