Golf in Aberdeen & Moray

The east coast above Aberdeen is the driest part of mainland Scotland after East Lothian. Annual rainfall around Cruden Bay and the Moray coast sits around 750mm — comparable to East Anglia. The reliable weather means the season runs longer than the Highlands: from late March through to early November, the links courses play in dry firm condition more often than not.

Wind is the constant. Royal Aberdeen's 8th — a par 3 over a deep gully to a green perched on the dune ridge — is the hole that every visitor remembers, partly because it can require anything from a wedge to a 4-iron depending on the morning's wind. Cruden Bay's 14th and 15th holes, played out to the furthest point of the dune system, are exposed to whatever is coming off the North Sea.

June, July and August are the optimal months. The Cruden Bay membership runs a Visitor Day system that limits visitor tee times to specific days of the week — check well in advance. The Moray clubs operate more flexibly; both Lossiemouth courses (the Old and the New) can usually be booked with two weeks' notice except around club competitions.

Three days covers both halves of the region — the Aberdeenshire coast and the Moray links — with enough time left for Speyside. The structure:

Day one: Royal Aberdeen in the morning — tee off 8am on the Balgownie dunes, finished by noon (£275). Murcar Links in the afternoon; it shares the same dune system and sits four minutes' drive from Royal Aberdeen's car park (£115). These two courses play the same wind from the same coastal ridge and show the contrast between a formal historic championship club and a working members' course at well under half the green fee.

Day two: drive twenty-three miles north on the A90 to Cruden Bay — the Tom Morris and Archie Simpson design on a dune system that every golf architect alive has visited as a reference point (£115 on a weekday). Drive eight miles south to Menie Estate for Trump International Aberdeen in the afternoon (from £195) — the 2012 Martin Hawtree design that its planning controversy overshadowed and that the course itself has now outlived. Both courses play the North Sea wind in the same exposed coastal position; back-to-back on day two is the right pairing.

Day three: drive ninety minutes north-west to Lossiemouth and play the Moray Golf Club's Old Course — Old Tom Morris's 1889 design, barely altered, almost unknown outside Scotland (£80). Allow the afternoon for Speyside. Drive twenty minutes to Craigellachie — the geographical centre of the whisky district — and use the Malt Whisky Trail. Glenfiddich in Dufftown and Aberlour are open for tours without advance booking; Strathisla in Keith is smaller and quieter. The practical constraint: distillery tours run 10am–4pm and take 60–90 minutes. One golf round plus one afternoon distillery is a comfortable combination; two distilleries requires a 7am tee time. The Craigellachie Hotel holds the most comprehensive Scotch whisky bar in Scotland and is the correct place to end the trip.