Scotland To play the courses of Scotland is to realize that here, as nowhere else, every great golfer in history has striven for his share of immortality. Not only can you play in the footsteps of greatness at St. Andrews and Carnoustie, Troon and Turnberry, but today's golfer can enjoy irresistible courses that most of the icons have never tasted, like Western Gailes, Cruden Bay and Machrihanish. You take the high road out, along the slopes of a bold, gorse-cloaked bluff, and the low road in, through the rumpled duneland beside the Dornoch Firth. Within the Dornoch orbit are many wonderful courses at golf clubs and resorts such as Golspie, Brora, Tain, Skibo Castle and Nairn . The championship links of the Nairn Golf Club are routed over rippling, hummocky ground smack beside the beach.
Few courses skirt the sea more closely.
The Walker Cup was played here in 1999. At Royal Aberdeen , founded in 1780, ribbons of fairway trace their lonely paths through a deep valley framed by dunes. Also in the countryside west of Aberdeen are two captivating 16th-century castles, Castle Fraser and Crathes Castle, while at nearby Stonehaven lies the magnificent Dunnottar Castle. Daily guided tours provide a description of the whisky maturation process in the Dunage warehouses and a glimpse at the vats where the marrying of the whiskies takes place. Visitors enjoy tastings and can also purchase bottles of the innovative new Glenfiddich single malt scotch products.