Lochmaben Golf Club

Lochmaben Golf Club plays through more history per hole than almost anywhere in the south of Scotland. Founded in 1926 with the original nine designed by James Braid, the parkland course around the Kirk Loch encompasses three archaeological sites of historic importance, with a fourth — the Gallows Hill — across the road from the fourth tee. The second green sits on the site of one of Robert the Bruce's castles, the motte remains clearly visible; the ninth runs past the ancient Skelvieland settlement. The hole names read like a local history pamphlet: Bruce's Motte, The Moats, Braid's First, Vendace Burn — that last one named for a fish found in almost no other British water.

The golf underneath the history is a proper test: par 70 at 6,005 yards off the whites, with a slope of 130 that outranks plenty of grander names. The card is unusual — out in a par of 33, home in 37 — so the scoring must be done early. The seventh, Swan's Nest, is the risk-and-reward hole, a near-90-degree dogleg where a 269-yard carry over the out of bounds can find an L-shaped green with the Kirk Loch ten yards beyond it; the eighth plays straight over an inlet of the loch. The stroke-index-1 tenth brings views to the Lakeland fells on a clear day, and the loch and its wildlife are company for most of the round.

The club is four miles from the M74, which makes it one of the easiest quality detours in Scotland for anyone driving north or south, and the drainage work the greens staff have put in keeps golf going all year round. The green fee is £58 weekday and £68 at the weekend, with day tickets published for the ambitious. The clubhouse food gets mentioned in nearly every visitor review the club reprints, which tells you where the priorities are — this is small-town Dumfriesshire golf done properly.