Links, Legends and Lost Balls in East Lothian: Scotland’s Golf Coast – Travel Review
By Kevin Pilley, June 2026
If you think of yourself as a golfer, both sides of the Firth of Forth teach you the same thing.
Primarily and notably, before treading on any hallowed links-land turf, for your dignity’s sake, it’s better to call yourself a golf historian rather than a golfer.
Playing golf by the sea is always an education and often a humiliation. Links golf may be “the way golf was meant to be”, but that doesn’t mean you will play as it should be played or as you usually play.
Playing the world’s most famous and oldest seaside links courses is 40% thrilling and 60% humbling.
The Golf Coast of Scotland, which features the greatest concentration of championship links golf courses in the world, doesn’t feature the likes of Royal Troon, Turnberry or Prestwick, the birthplace of The Open in 1860. It is on the east coast of Scotland, not the west one.
North Berwick
“Scenic and sadistic”
Nor does it include St Andrews or Carnoustie either. It is on the south side of the Firth of Forth in East Lothian, east of Edinburgh, and stretches from Musselburgh Old Links, established as an eight-hole course in 1838 and becoming a nine-hole course in 1870, to Dunbar, est. 1856, with Luffness New, est. 1894, the golf village of Gullane, the Gullane (top image) No. 2 course was established in 1898, Archerfield’s Fidra, named after the island which may have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and Dirleton Links, Muirfield and North Berwick in between.
Scotland’s Golf Coast may not boast the Road Hole or the Postage Stamp, but it still has famous, scenic and sadistic holes such as Mill Stone Den, the 14th at Dunbar; The Graves at Kilspindie, est. 1898, in Britain’s first nature reserve of Aberlady Bay; and Coots Pond at Longniddry, est. 1921.
East Lothian is very historic golfing territory. Mary Queen of Scots may well have swung a golf club at Seton Castle near Prestonpans in the late 16th century. There are over 20 courses along the coast, including The Renaissance, which opened in 2008.
Greywalls
“Oldest”
The “auld gowf course” in the middle of Musselburgh Racecourse is a sacred site for golfers and golf historians alike. Musselburgh Links was one of the three courses that staged The Open Championship in the 1870s and 1880s, along with Prestwick and the Old Course at St Andrews. It hosted six Opens, the first in 1874 and the last in 1889, won by Willie Park Jnr, who, with Ben Sayers, designed Kilspindie.
The four-and-a-quarter-inch (108mm) diameter golf hole was the width of the implement used to first cut the holes at Musselburgh, thought to be an old drainpipe. In 1894, the Royal & Ancient made the measurement mandatory for all golf courses. Earlier, the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club paid an account to a local blacksmith, Robert Gay, for “forming the hole, the sum of £1”.
Muirfield has hosted The Open Championship 16 times, the first in 1892. A new private 18-hole course at Muirfield was designed in 1891 by Old Tom Morris, who also designed The Old Course, New Luffness and Dunbar. A round at the home of The Honourable Society of Edinburgh Golfers, the oldest verifiable organised golfing society, est. 1744, now costs £420, or £655 for a day ticket, including lunch.
Muirfield Clubhouse
“Landed in the frying pan”
Golf historians may want to visit Leith Park, the site of the former five-hole Leith Links. Charles I and the future James VII and James II may have played there while in residence at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Palace. The rules of golf developed in Leith, the original home of the Honourable Society, were adopted by the Royal and Ancient Company of Golfers when it moved to St Andrews in 1777. Golf was officially banned at the park in 1905.
The less well-known, non-Open roster courses along the Scottish Golf Coast are cheaper than the so-called championship courses: from £120 to £180, with twilight and senior rates. Dunbar is £175–£225. The historic 2,971-yard, nine-hole Musselburgh Links charges around £25.
Sadly, its famous 10th/19th hole – Ma Forman’s – is no more. Reportedly, a golf ball once came down its chimney and landed in the frying pan in which the landlady was preparing her signature Welsh rarebit. The old pub has been “developed”.
Dunbar
“Signature hole”
North Berwick Golf Club, founded in 1832, charges around £300 for a green fee. It is the 13th oldest golf club in the world and, in 1888, was the first club in the world to allow female membership, after the Ladies’ Putting Club of St Andrews, 1867.
Its signature hole is the 15th, “Redan”. Other holes are called Bos’ns Locker, Eastward Ho! and Quarry. Glen Golf Club is the seaside town’s east links. First opened in 1894, it was James Braid’s first design, becoming the Burgh – possibly the world’s first municipal course – in 1905 and Glen in 1930.
Not basing yourself at The Marine Hotel at North Berwick is as mad as hiring a Fiat 500 for a golf break. Companies such as Golf Breaks offer Scottish Golf Coast tours and will book your hotel and tee times for you. Book at least a year in advance if you wish to play Muirfield.
The Marine Hotel
“Extra-friendly”
The Marine is a real golf hotel. Some bedrooms have old tee boxes repurposed as bedside tables and command views of the course and Bass Rock, and the largest gannetry in the world.
Its maximalist Victorian moquette wallpaper and carpets, which bring the outside in, may take some getting used to, but it is an extra-friendly, characterful place. With just enough, but not too much, tartan. And a five-minute walk to the first tee.
Complimentary bicycles are available for those with time and energy left to explore the town. A billiards room is available for those for whom cycling is too much. The food is very good and quasi-clubhouse, and there is a spa with a hydrotherapy pool for those who believe they play better with waxed eyebrows and drive straighter after a toxin-eliminating body wrap.
A whisky in your porridge with your full Scottish haggis breakfast settles the first-tee nerves.
The grand 83-room hotel is part of the golf-focused Marine and Lawn group, which comprises the Adelphi in Portrush and Slieve Donard, next to Royal County Down Club in the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, and, in Scotland, the Marine Troon, Dornoch Station and Greywalls, right behind the clubhouse at Muirfield, just down the coastal trail road from North Berwick.
View from North Berwick’s 19th
“Beautiful places”
The 1901 Edwin Lutyens Edwardian country house, with a Gertrude Jekyll garden, is being refurbished and “branded”. When it and Colonel Weaver’s House, named after the family who opened Greywalls as a hotel, reopen, they will offer all the usual Marine and Lawn trappings, from Floris toiletries and fireplaces to an ample sense of exclusivity and luxury, and “unco”, in the “extremely” sense of the old Scottish word, affable staff.
Like many golfers, I keep my scorecards. They remind me of the beautiful places golf has taken me and the famous courses where I have played. Mostly badly.
The scorecard from North Berwick West Links will remind me of the pleasures of Scotland’s Golf Coast, as well as an incident which makes a good trivia question.
Having hit the perfect drive straight down the middle towards the right flag, how did I turn a par four into a par five and have to call through the group putting on the green behind me?
I hit a wall in front of me and the rebound nearly took my head off.
“Fond memories”
I cannot blame gannets or migratory geese squawking at the top of my backswing or, as I initiated my downswing, being distracted by the sight of two semi-nude men scampering away from The Marine Hotel’s outdoor ice baths.
I hit my shot perfectly.
Perfection can be found in North Berwick, on the course and off it. If you get the right club at the 14th, which is called “Perfection”. And if you get your hotel selection spot on and stay at The Marine, and meet Aimee behind the reception desk, Joshan in the bar, Richard and Daniel in the restaurant, and the rest of GM Gina Clark’s wonderful staff, all of whom have mastered the art of serving up “coorie”, the Scottish for homely hospitality.
On a golfing break, it is great to come back with some fond memories of some really nice people.
Rather than negative memories.
Of a wall.
And a nasty eight on your card.
marineandlawn.com
Five nights at The Marine Hotel North Berwick, playing North Berwick, Gullane 1, Archerfield Links and Dunbar, from around £2,175 per person.
This price is subject to availability and rate changes.
golfbreaks.com
cwilliams@golfbreaks.com
Tel: 01753 752900
