Machrihanish Dunes

Wild & Natural

Machrihanish Dunes shares a majestic dunescape with its neighbouring course Machrihanish GC - a historic course which was laid out in 1879 by Old Tom Morris.

Golf architect David McLay Kidd, of Bandon Dunes fame, was very familiar with Machrihanish GC as his family owned a holiday house overlooking the course, and he spent his summer holidays caddying there.

So it was almost inevitable that when Machrihanish Dunes was proposed in 2007, that Kidd was invited to bring the project to fruition.

However the Dunes land carried the most environmentally sensitive designation allocated in Scotland, and the routing of the course, and placement of tees and greens was only possible after considering endangered species of marsh orchid and Burnet moth. 

Not only did Kidd and his team work with these restrictions, but they embraced the concept of a natural course much in the spirit of Old Tom years before.

The course is not irrigated.

No pesticides are allowed.

A flock of 80 or so sheep graze the fairways in the off season, eradicating ragwort.

The theory is that the tramping of golfers and constant mowing will over time allow the fine fescues that links golfers love to dominate.

Kidd moved little dirt in creating the dunes.

With due consideration to the environmental constraints, teeing grounds and greens were tweaked based on the natural topography. But the fairways remain essentially untouched.

 Playing the Dunes really does feel like you have gone back in time. The greens have a lot of movement, and are true but slow.

The fairway grasses are largely good to play off, but are some years off being a pristine cover of fescue. At present there is a mixture of broad leaved grasses and weeds in with the fescue, and occasionally a poor lie will present.

It is all just so natural, and uncontrived.

There are multiple teeing grounds at The Dunes, giving so many different perspectives on the same hole for returning golfers. I would argue this is a positive.

But because of the aforementioned environmental concerns, the trails to the tees are both prolonged and circuitous.

Personally I don't mind a good walk through some lovely dunes, but many feel the walks from green to tee are just too long and detract from the enjoyment of the game.

Machrihanish Dunes is an interesting course and great fun to play.

It will be interesting to see how the course matures over time. I played in 2014 and I am sure it will have already evolved considerably 

Combined with the older course at Machrihanish it makes a delightful golfing destination.

The delightful Ugadale hotel and apartments also ensure that golfers will be very comfortable in what is really an ideal place for a short golfing getaway