Itinerary help - North Ireland/Northern Ireland - which courses?

[Chanceman]

Here’s my crack at a friendly one week golf tour of middle Ireland starting in Dublin:

 

Roganstown

Knightsbrook

Headfort

Esker Hills

Carlow

Rathsallagh

Dun Laoghaire

 

Green fees total Les than 400eu. Each course is about an hour from the next.

[hammergolf]

2 hours ago, Chanceman said:

Here’s my crack at a friendly one week golf tour of middle Ireland starting in Dublin:

 

Roganstown

Knightsbrook

Headfort

Esker Hills

Carlow

Rathsallagh

Dun Laoghaire

 

Green fees total Les than 400eu. Each course is about an hour from the next.

I’d add Corballis and Macreddin 

[Chanceman]

1 hour ago, hammergolf said:

I’d add Corballis and Macreddin 

Probably right . Played Macreddin a few years ago, loved it. Corballis is one I need to play sometime.

[El Gringo]

 

5 hours ago, Chanceman said:

Probably right . Played Macreddin a few years ago, loved it. Corballis is one I need to play sometime.

 

I always suggest folks play Otway if they are anywhere near Rosapenna. A truly remarkable 9 holer in a stunning setting. Built by a farmer. Stop by a bungalow and pay 15 Euro to his mother….for unlimited golf. 

#s 2, 6 & 9 (x2).

Edited March 8 by El Gringo

[hammergolf]

11 hours ago, Chanceman said:

Probably right . Played Macreddin a few years ago, loved it. Corballis is one I need to play sometime.

Highly recommend Corballis. It’s my first round off the plane every trip. There are 3 holes on the back that are our of place and average at best, but the other 15 are really good. In addition if you like challenging short par 3s it might have the best collection anywhere. Throw all that in with great condition for €30 and it might be the best value in the country.

[jhipps]

Can’t remember what we paid for Portmarnock but it was one of our favorites and I would absolutely recommend. Best green complexes on the whole trip. Would’ve liked to play Baltray but didn’t want to make the drive from downtown Dublin. In hindsight, I would’ve switched it for the European Club. European Club was nice but we all thought it was one-dimensional and really tough. I appreciated the challenge but our group felt it was the least-fun out of our 11 rounds on the island. 
 

It sure seems like Ireland golf has cranked up prices and is harder to book, compared to Scotland. I know many desirable Irish courses give a lot of advantage to local golf travel companies. Good for them, but tough for us planners. I also assume it has to do with the greater number of courses in Scotland vs Ireland. The top end in both locales is very comparable, but Scotland seems to have a lot more fantastic tracks in the 2nd tier. I think there’s just more golf to spread around in Scotland, thus (slightly) lower demand?

 

Scotland in 2025

Ireland in 2026

[eboettne]

On 3/8/2025 at 4:19 AM, El Gringo said:

 

 

I always suggest folks play Otway if they are anywhere near Rosapenna. A truly remarkable 9 holer in a stunning setting. Built by a farmer. Stop by a bungalow and pay 15 Euro to his mother….for unlimited golf. 

#s 2, 6 & 9 (x2).

Now that's a hidden gem, wow.  Thanks!

[El Gringo]

15 minutes ago, eboettne said:

Now that's a hidden gem, wow.  Thanks!

Yer welcome. I have not played Mulranny, but it’s my #1 bucket list course in Ireland. Everyone I know who has played it say Mulranny is an outstanding 9 holer. Castlegregory also comes highly recommended…never played it.

Edited March 12 by El Gringo

[ajgoodal.704]

On 3/7/2025 at 7:54 PM, Chanceman said:

Here’s my crack at a friendly one week golf tour of middle Ireland starting in Dublin:

 

Roganstown

Knightsbrook

Headfort

Esker Hills

Carlow

Rathsallagh

Dun Laoghaire

 

Green fees total Les than 400eu. Each course is about an hour from the next.

Don't sleep on Headfort.  We played the New (Championship) Course on our last day before leaving from Dublin and it was awesome.  On future trips, we will probably do a few more parkland rounds to balance out the price hikes on the links courses.  

[Sterling_247]

Couldn't agree more with those suggesting Corballis when you get off the plane. Went this past October and played a lot of golf; can't beat the value of Corballis. 

 

Our group didn't have a great experience at N&P (aside from a hole in one) and would likely drop it from future trips. The first several holes are pretty terrible. The people were awesome but the course was a bit of a letdown for conditions and layout aside from the stretch of holes out on the point. 

 

I would give another endorsement for Option 2. Don't think you'll get a better group of courses and from a logistics standpoint it makes good sense.

 

One note I'll add, the moment our group walked off the 18th at RCD we regretted not taking advantage of the replay rate and doing 36. It was honestly one of the best experiences I've had in golf. 

 

Day 1 - Portmarnock (overpriced but awesome conditions and enjoyable) 
Day 2 - The Island & Baltray (heard many good things about Baltray from locals) 
Day 3 - Royal County Down (play 36 if you can manage it) 
Day 4 - Ardglass (very pleasantly surprised) 
Day 5 - Portstewart & Portrush Valley 
Day 6 - Royal Portrush (our only regret was missing this one) 

 

If I were to do it again, I would likely skip the courses at Rosapenna, Portsalon, and N&P. The courses are solid but not worth a side-quest to play them, including St. Pats. Portrush (Ballyliffin, Portstewart, Portrush)and the other courses in the area would be my go to for golf over the trip to Donegal (Rosapenna, Portsalon, N&P, Cruit).

 

 

 

 

Edited March 19 by Sterling_247

[ESOX ZO]

Can't wait to get back to Ireland someday - I loved Donegal as a whole outside the golf, could easily spend a week there and not golf once.

 

 

[eboettne]

On 3/19/2025 at 8:27 AM, Sterling_247 said:

Couldn't agree more with those suggesting Corballis when you get off the plane. Went this past October and played a lot of golf; can't beat the value of Corballis. 

 

Our group didn't have a great experience at N&P (aside from a hole in one) and would likely drop it from future trips. The first several holes are pretty terrible. The people were awesome but the course was a bit of a letdown for conditions and layout aside from the stretch of holes out on the point. 

 

I would give another endorsement for Option 2. Don't think you'll get a better group of courses and from a logistics standpoint it makes good sense.

 

One note I'll add, the moment our group walked off the 18th at RCD we regretted not taking advantage of the replay rate and doing 36. It was honestly one of the best experiences I've had in golf. 

 

Day 1 - Portmarnock (overpriced but awesome conditions and enjoyable) 
Day 2 - The Island & Baltray (heard many good things about Baltray from locals) 
Day 3 - Royal County Down (play 36 if you can manage it) 
Day 4 - Ardglass (very pleasantly surprised) 
Day 5 - Portstewart & Portrush Valley 
Day 6 - Royal Portrush (our only regret was missing this one) 

 

If I were to do it again, I would likely skip the courses at Rosapenna, Portsalon, and N&P. The courses are solid but not worth a side-quest to play them, including St. Pats. Portrush (Ballyliffin, Portstewart, Portrush)and the other courses in the area would be my go to for golf over the trip to Donegal (Rosapenna, Portsalon, N&P, Cruit).

 

 

 

 

 

So interesting to hear about skipping Rosapenna, some people swear St Pats is one of the best courses they've played.  Different strokes I suppose, I'll report back in a month after I play.

 

How was the Rosapenna resort? We're staying there for a couple of nights.  It's a 10 year anniversary trip with the wife and we're doing:

 

Day 1: Land drive to Belfast sightsee, Titanic museum and stay overnight

Day 2: Antrim Coast, Causeway, Dark Hedges, etc PM Tee Time at Portstewart. Stay in Portrush

Day 3: Drive to Rosapenna, possibly play Otway on the way, Stay at Rosapenna

Day 4: Play St Pats, Stay a 2nd night at Rosapenna

Day 5: Drive back to Dublin, sightsee. Possibly Play Corballis

Day 6: Fly Out

 

Open to any and all recommendations on how to improve the itinerary!

[El Gringo]

For me St Patrick’s is elite level Irish golf. Right there with Lahinch, Ballybunion, Portrush, RCD, The Island, Portmarnock and Baltray. 
 

[st1800e]

On 3/28/2025 at 2:14 PM, eboettne said:

How was the Rosapenna resort?

“Better than most” 😉.  

 

Good quality hotel, nice rooms, and beds….leaning to upper end.  Staff very helpful.   
 

 

 

Edited March 31 by st1800e

[Sterling_247]

On 3/28/2025 at 4:14 PM, eboettne said:

 

So interesting to hear about skipping Rosapenna, some people swear St Pats is one of the best courses they've played.  Different strokes I suppose, I'll report back in a month after I play.

 

How was the Rosapenna resort? We're staying there for a couple of nights.  It's a 10 year anniversary trip with the wife and we're doing:

 

Day 1: Land drive to Belfast sightsee, Titanic museum and stay overnight

Day 2: Antrim Coast, Causeway, Dark Hedges, etc PM Tee Time at Portstewart. Stay in Portrush

Day 3: Drive to Rosapenna, possibly play Otway on the way, Stay at Rosapenna

Day 4: Play St Pats, Stay a 2nd night at Rosapenna

Day 5: Drive back to Dublin, sightsee. Possibly Play Corballis

Day 6: Fly Out

 

Open to any and all recommendations on how to improve the itinerary!

 

Curious to hear how you like St Pats. It's a great course aside from a couple spots imho. We were playing in pretty heavy wind (considerably more than the rest of the trip) the day we played. We did a two man scramble in the afternoon and it was a highlight of the trip. Unanimously agreed that the mounds in front of #7 were a questionable choice. 

 

As for the resort I couldn't really say. We stayed above the town in an AirBnb just next to the Harbor Bar. Goose & Gander was really solid for food so we went 2 nights. Underwhelming meal at the hotel across the street from it. The Galley was solid from breakfast and we stopped a couple times for coffee

[El Gringo]

I agree. Goose and Gander has a 70s feel pizza bar. Lovely.

[eboettne]

8 hours ago, Sterling_247 said:

 

Curious to hear how you like St Pats. It's a great course aside from a couple spots imho. We were playing in pretty heavy wind (considerably more than the rest of the trip) the day we played. We did a two man scramble in the afternoon and it was a highlight of the trip. Unanimously agreed that the mounds in front of #7 were a questionable choice. 

 

As for the resort I couldn't really say. We stayed above the town in an AirBnb just next to the Harbor Bar. Goose & Gander was really solid for food so we went 2 nights. Underwhelming meal at the hotel across the street from it. The Galley was solid from breakfast and we stopped a couple times for coffee

I'll report back, thanks for the tip on Goose & Gander. Sounds like my type of place.

[SpacklerLives]

FYI-for those considering a Northern Ireland run in 2026, now is the time. Portrush tee sheet opened to the public a couple of weeks ago and Royal County Down opened up this morning. To give you a sense of how busy they are, there was a single spot available on the day in June that we were targeting for RCD. I’ll come back in a week or two with questions on an updated proposed itinerary. Thanks for everyone’s help so far!   

[jvincent]

On 4/15/2025 at 1:26 PM, SpacklerLives said:

FYI-for those considering a Northern Ireland run in 2026, now is the time. Portrush tee sheet opened to the public a couple of weeks ago and Royal County Down opened up this morning. To give you a sense of how busy they are, there was a single spot available on the day in June that we were targeting for RCD. I’ll come back in a week or two with questions on an updated proposed itinerary. Thanks for everyone’s help so far!   

 

No kidding. We are going in April 2026. Had no problem with the times we wanted at Portrush but had to juggle our itinerary by a day for RCD.  I'll be booking the rest this week. I doubt I'll have a problem with any of those.

[jhipps]

It's crazy- I just booked RCD for 2026 and basically got the last 2 tee times in the month of September. I couldn't even get through on the first day the tee sheet opened- phone line was busy ALL DAY. They said the first day was a frenzy with tour operators gobbling up all the tee times. 

[golfday]

Yeah, it's definitely wild. You basically have to book in Feb/March for the following year if you want to play Portrush Dunluce during the peak season. We started booking a week in August 2026 in mid-March and had to re-work our initial plans because Royal Portrush only had one day with back to back times available the entire week we were targeting - and they're at 3:30 pm. We were lucky to get through the RCD phone lines and got slotted in for a day that week so it all worked out ok.

 

I can only imagine that it will be worse in 2027 after the Open this year. 

[SpacklerLives]

We are finally getting to some routing options and could use some help finalizing things.

 

Option 1
Day 1 - PM: European Club $370 or Portmarnock-$540 or Royal Dublin-$360 (stay in Dublin)
Day 2 - Corballis AM, The Island PM (stay in Dublin)
Day 3 - Baltray (stay near Portrush)
Day 4 - Royal Portrush PM (stay near Portrush)
Day 5 - Portstewart or Portrush Valley AM, Ardglass PM (stay near RCD)
Day 6 - Royal County Down (3pm) - add Annesley in the morning? (stay near RCD)

 

Option 2
Day 1 - PM: European Club, Portmarnock, Royal Dublin (stay in Dublin)
Day 2 - The Island AM, Baltray PM (stay near Portrush)
Day 3 - Portstewart (stay near Portrush)
Day 4 - Royal Portrush PM (stay near Portrush)
Day 5 - Portrush Valley AM & Ardglass PM (stay near RCD)
Day 6 - Royal County Down (3pm) - add Annesley in the morning? (stay near RCD)

 

Option 1 we’d have to decide between Portstewart or Portrush Valley on day 5.  2 nights in Dublin, though we would have to drive back downtown after The Island and double back the next day to Baltray.  Option 2 includes both Portstewart and Portrush Valley, though we would likely drop Corballis.  1 night in Dublin, 3 nights near Portrush.  We would love to play both Portstewart and Portrush Valley, and Corballis/Island 36 sounds like a great day.  Tough call.

 

-Any preference between the two routings?  

-If Option 1, should we play Portstewart or Portrush Valley?
-Between the European Club, Portmarnock, or Royal Dublin, maybe European Club given the more dramatic views?
-Since we don’t play until 3pm at RCD, should we play Annesley in the morning?

[eboettne]

And here I am trying to email Portrush and RCD to see if I can get on in a week.  They were very nice about letting me know they were booked but may have been laughing at the request.

[jvincent]

 

6 hours ago, SpacklerLives said:

-Any preference between the two routings?  

-If Option 1, should we play Portstewart or Portrush Valley?
-Between the European Club, Portmarnock, or Royal Dublin, maybe European Club given the more dramatic views?
-Since we don’t play until 3pm at RCD, should we play Annesley in the morning?

 

I'd go with Option 2.

 

European Club is certainly the more dramatic/spectacular, but it will beat you up. From a pure golf perspective, I'd go with Portmarnock.

 

For me, I'd rather be rested before playing RCD. Maybe play 9 in the morning and have a relaxed lunch?

[eboettne]

Back from my Northern Ireland/NW Ireland trip and wow what an incredible country.  We received exactly 0.0" of rain in the 7 days we were there and quite a bit of sunshine.  Notes from the trip that may be useful to people planning the trip:

 

- Belfast is skippable - perhaps we didn't hit the right places but it did almost nothing for me, even the Titanic museum, while neat, didn't hit me like I thought it would.  Also didn't get a great vibe from the locals there. I go to Ireland for the towns and local pubs, not the bigger cities. 

- Portstewart is amazing - The dunes on the front 9 of Portstewart were the biggest I've ever seen, was almost laughing standing on the 1st tee looking down at them.  The
"big" dunes at Bandon Dunes pale in comparison. The golf was great as our caddies Ansley and Jake were top notch.  Do not miss the turn stand for a Guinness, Ansley even showed me the proper way to enjoy it(gotta let it settle). The back 9 was no slouch at all and still had some very neat holes along the river as you worked your way out of the dunes. 

- Rosapenna was amazing - the drive to get there may well have been out of a storybook.  I only wish I would have had the time to play all 3 courses.  That being said, St Patrick's lived up to the billing, an incredible golf course that worked with the land very well, it was not a difficult walk in the least. Do not stay only within the resort, the town of Downings was fantastic with great locals. We enjoyed pints at the Singing Pub and the Harbor Bar as well as some awesome pizza at Goose and Gander.

- Dublin's Temple Bar area was very neat and definitely worth pub hopping for a day/night

- Driving - I'd make sure I do less of it next time.  While it wasn't terrible, it's a mental strain to be driving on the other side of the road and on the right side of the car in all but 1 of the days of our trips.  Also, the drive from Rosapenna back to Dublin was a bit of a grind for me.  I must have gone through 200 roundabouts.  For this reason alone I may go to Scotland or England before returning to Ireland again just so I can hop on trains and relax.

Edited May 6 by eboettne

[Chanceman]

19 hours ago, eboettne said:

Back from my Northern Ireland/NW Ireland trip and wow what an incredible country.  We received exactly 0.0" of rain in the 7 days we were there and quite a bit of sunshine.  Notes from the trip that may be useful to people planning the trip:

 

- Belfast is skippable - perhaps we didn't hit the right places but it did almost nothing for me, even the Titanic museum, while neat, didn't hit me like I thought it would.  Also didn't get a great vibe from the locals there. I go to Ireland for the towns and local pubs, not the bigger cities. 

- Portstewart is amazing - The dunes on the front 9 of Portstewart were the biggest I've ever seen, was almost laughing standing on the 1st tee looking down at them.  The
"big" dunes at Bandon Dunes pale in comparison. The golf was great as our caddies Ansley and Jake were top notch.  Do not miss the turn stand for a Guinness, Ansley even showed me the proper way to enjoy it(gotta let it settle). The back 9 was no slouch at all and still had some very neat holes along the river as you worked your way out of the dunes. 

- Rosapenna was amazing - the drive to get there may well have been out of a storybook.  I only wish I would have had the time to play all 3 courses.  That being said, St Patrick's lived up to the billing, an incredible golf course that worked with the land very well, it was not a difficult walk in the least. Do not stay only within the resort, the town of Downings was fantastic with great locals. We enjoyed pints at the Singing Pub and the Harbor Bar as well as some awesome pizza at Goose and Gander.

- Dublin's Temple Bar area was very neat and definitely worth pub hopping for a day/night

- Driving - I'd make sure I do less of it next time.  While it wasn't terrible, it's a mental strain to be driving on the other side of the road and on the right side of the car in all but 1 of the days of our trips.  Also, the drive from Rosapenna back to Dublin was a bit of a grind for me.  I must have gone through 200 roundabouts.  For this reason alone I may go to Scotland or England before returning to Ireland again just so I can hop on trains and relax.

Thanks for all that. Re St Patrick’s there are some complaints about the conditioning of the course. Perhaps from over use in its early days. How did you find it? 

[eboettne]

3 hours ago, Chanceman said:

Thanks for all that. Re St Patrick’s there are some complaints about the conditioning of the course. Perhaps from over use in its early days. How did you find it? 

I had zero issues with conditioning, greens were rolling really well and all my lies were great(except when I managed to find the fescue).  My caddy did mention that the course has grown in really well this spring and is in good shape.  They did have an unofficial 'play your ball within a club length' of where you are in the fairway but I just played my ball down the entire round as I didn't notice any issues with my fairway lies.  Not a conditioning issue but it did surprise me that the surrounds were slower than I imagined so you had to give your putts off the green a little extra hit to make sure you didn't leave it short.

[eboettne]

A few pictures from the trip:

 

Portstewart

 

 

St Patrick's Links:

[hammergolf]

1 hour ago, eboettne said:

A few pictures from the trip:

 

Portstewart

 

 

St Patrick's Links:

The front 9 at Portstewart might the best opening stretch in Ireland. Portrush gets all the hype but Portstewart is as good if not better.

[eboettne]

16 hours ago, hammergolf said:

The front 9 at Portstewart might the best opening stretch in Ireland. Portrush gets all the hype but Portstewart is as good if not better.

I was blown away by it, standing on the 1st tee was breathtaking.  I thought the back 9 was a pretty cool routing as well playing alongside the river.