Blair was six and, until that enchanting summer’s afternoon at Carradale Golf Club, had never played a round of golf at a ‘proper’ course. His words, not mine.
Yes, he had played the children’s courses at North Berwick and Gullane, but this was different. As a family, we set off that day, led by Blair, our youngest of three boys, with his pint-sized golf bag draped across his shoulders and a handful of clubs, including his prized pitching wedge, or his “chippy chipper”, as he called it.
The chippy chipper, it turned out, was something of a weapon.
Every so often Blair would catch one perfectly. The ball would climb into the air and his face would change with it, a look of complete astonishment spreading across it, as though he had just discovered golf balls could fly. Then he would run. Not walk briskly. Not wait politely while the rest of us played. Run like the wind. Full sprint, straight after his ball, desperate to get there and perform the miracle all over again.
There were five of us playing at Carradale Golf Club that afternoon: my wife, our three sons and I. Four of us were attempting something loosely resembling a Texas scramble. Something close to golf. Blair, however, was playing another game entirely. And, looking back, I think he may have understood the joy of Carradale better than any of us.
Carradale Golf Club at a glance
| Location | Carradale, east coast of the Kintyre peninsula, Argyll (PA28 6RY) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1906 |
| Course | Nine holes, par 32, 2,292 yards from the white tees |
| Course type | Heathland and moorland, with small greens, blind shots and natural hazards |
| Views | Across the Kilbrannan Sound to the Isle of Arran |
| Green fees | £20 for nine holes, paid by honesty box (August 2026) |
| Best for | Families, relaxed rounds and golfers who value views over length |
| Getting there | Around 15 miles north of Campbeltown; by road from Glasgow via Loch Lomond, Inveraray and Kennacraig |
| Nearby golf | Machrihanish, Machrihanish Dunes and Dunaverty |
The Road to Carradale, Kintyre
Carradale Golf Club is not somewhere you stumble across. You have to make your way there, and that feels important. The village sits on the east coast of the Kintyre peninsula, around 15 miles north of Campbeltown, looking across the Kilbrannan Sound towards the Isle of Arran. On a map it doesn’t look impossibly remote. The journey, though, tells a different story. We drove north with three boys, five sets of golf clubs and so much luggage that by the time everything had been forced into the car there was barely room for us.
The road took us past Loch Lomond and over the Rest and Be Thankful, the great pass between Glen Croe and Glen Kinglas, before dropping towards Loch Fyne and Inveraray. Then we turned south onto Kintyre. The further we went, the quieter Scotland became. After Kennacraig we turned south-east. The road narrowed. Traffic disappeared. We stopped for some stupendous seafood at the Skipness Seafood Cabin (it’s much more than a cabin, I can’t recommend highly enough) in the shadow of Skipness Castle and then followed the coast south for another 45 minutes. We must have seen no more than three cars along the way. This was August.
Eventually Carradale appeared: a scattering of houses between hills and sea. This is a place of such understated loveliness that in the early 1900s the ferries running from Glasgow down to Campbeltown are said to have slowed here before they docked so their passengers could take in the beauty of the village from the water. Whether or not that story has grown in the telling, it feels true when you arrive. This was herring country once, and the boom brought hotels and holidaymakers and a steady trade in visitors. People came. Few wanted to leave. A good many never did. The fishing boom has long since passed and the village is unquestionably quieter these days because of it. Later, walking down the middle of the empty village roads, we heard almost nothing aside from the birdsong. It was delightful.
There are places where remoteness feels inconvenient. Carradale’s feels like part of its character. By the time you arrive, you have already slowed down. Perhaps that is why the golf club fits so well and carries such importance these days.
Carradale Golf Club: The Arrival
The following afternoon we walked from our rented house with clubs on our backs. Even before we reached the golf club, I found myself trying to hold onto the moment. All five of us were walking to play golf together. Three boys, aged six, 10 and 14, with wildly different levels of ability and wildly different interpretations of how quickly a family should move when carrying golf clubs. What could possibly go wrong? How often would we get to do this again? How could I relax enough to savour the moment and not worry about anything else?
Founded in 1906, Carradale Golf Club is an intoxicating nine-hole course set above Port Righ. Its fairways and greens look across the water, although it may be relatively small in scale, it is blessed with views that seem far grander than anything its modest footprint ought to allow. It’s wonderfully informal, a beautiful place to spend time and it sits at the heart of the village, both in terms of significance and location. Its pull and reputation has never been needed more here.
Before we played, the club president, Eilidh Neilson, had invited me for a chat and a cup of tea. Margaret Campbell and Rennie Robertson were there too. It quickly became apparent that all three were deeply passionate about Carradale Golf Club and its place in Scottish golf, and bursting with pride at the opportunity to tell its story to the world. And who can blame them? All three are in their eighties. Each has given time, energy and love to this place in different ways over the years, and their shared belief in the magic of Carradale is infectious. Robert Strang, who has tended this golf course as greenkeeper for the best part of four decades, popped his head around the door to say hello. A visitor from America arrived asking whether he might rent some golf clubs to play. Another gregarious golfer from Newport in Wales popped into the clubhouse still glowing from his round. He too stopped for a chat before heading back towards Tarbert, where he was staying.
Then there was Chris, from Somerset. He had just played his final round of the summer with his wife. He first came to Carradale when he was 12 and has returned every summer since. He remains a member despite living hundreds of miles away. As he left, he raised a hand. “See you next summer,” he said, as if there could be no other possibility. That, I began to realise, is Carradale Golf Club. People leave, but they tend to leave a piece of their hearts behind.
Margaret went on to tell me about the days when members claimed their place on the tee sheet by putting a golf ball next to their chosen slot on a wooden board. Some members were reluctant to leave a decent ball sitting there, so they substituted a stone before nipping down to the baker’s for a roll and hurrying back before their turn came around. There is something wonderfully Carradale about that story. The clubhouse is never locked. The course is seldom crowded. Members now live as far afield as the United States (two joined in the year we visited) but still regard this tiny golf club beside the sea as theirs. It does not hold on to people by being grand. It holds on to them simply by being itself. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Five Golfers, Nine Magical Holes
The 1st hole at Carradale Golf Club, Hazel Hill, looks straightforward. A short iron towards an elevated green just up the hill from the clubhouse. The walk to the 1st green is a climb but, when you get there, you realise it was all worthwhile.From the summit, the land falls away and the magnificence of the Kilbrannan Sound is spread out in front of you, with the mountains of Arran beyond it and an enormous sky overhead. Pure magic. Carradale Golf Club does this repeatedly.
The golf is woven into the hillside rather than imposed upon it. There are blind shots and slopes and greens tucked into folds of land. One moment you are trying to work out where on earth the flag has gone; the next you are standing somewhere beautiful enough to make the golf briefly irrelevant. From the back tee on the 4th, Hillocks, the view across the water will stop you in your tracks. We could pick out Shiskine Golf Club on Arran, or so we thought.
The round took us forever. I mean that as a compliment. There were balls lost and other people’s balls found. There were putts celebrated far beyond their sporting significance. There was laughter. There were disagreements. There was at least one tear (possibly more). Three brothers played golf together, which meant acts of touching encouragement were often separated from acts of merciless provocation by no more than 10 seconds.
Nobody hurried us. Nobody needed to. And somewhere in the middle of all this was Blair. Chippy chipper. Strike. Astonishment. Sprint. Again. Sometimes golf gets presented to children as something they must learn before they are allowed to enjoy it. Grip this way. Stand there. Wait your turn. Keep your score. Observe the etiquette. Understand the rules. Carradale Golf Club gave Blair something else first. It gave him (and the rest of us for that matter) the fun. There was no scorecard that mattered to him. No handicap. No concern about whether his ball had travelled thirty yards or sixty. He had hit it. It had flown. He wanted to do it again. Now, make no mistake, Carradale is so much more than a golf playground for a six-year-old. It is a wonderful test of shotmaking. The blind shots, slopes and greens tucked into folds of land ask questions of very good golfers, too. The layout is inventive and dramatic, but it never loses that sense of fun
Carradale: The Walk Home
Eventually we reached the 9th. I have played 18-hole rounds that seemed to pass more quickly than those nine holes, yet none of us particularly wanted this round to end. As we walked back towards the clubhouse, Eilidh was waiting for us with a Carradale-branded Titleist golf ball for each of the boys. A small gesture, perhaps. But that is the strange thing about childhood. You never quite know which moments are going to lodge themselves somewhere permanent. The boys still have those balls.
When I think back to our time at Carradale Golf Club, I don’t first remember a particular hole or a particular shot. I remember us walking there together that afternoon with our clubs on our backs. I remember tea in the clubhouse and Chris saying, “See you next summer.” I remember Arran appearing beyond the water. And I remember a six-year-old racing across a golf course after a ball he had just chipped into the air, utterly unable to contain himself. There are grander golf courses in Scotland. There are more famous ones, more difficult ones and certainly easier ones to reach. Carradale gave us something different. For one round there was nowhere else any of us needed to be. Five of us walked out together. Nobody rushed us. Nobody minded that our youngest golfer occasionally forgot almost everything about the conventions of the game because he was too busy enjoying it.
And somewhere during those nine holes, without lessons or ceremony or anybody really noticing it happen, Blair became a little golfer. You see, the wonder of Carradale Golf Club is not just its timeless beauty and the extraordinary quiet. It’s that while you are playing it might just make you feel like a child again. And who doesn’t want that?
*For more information or to book a tee time, visit CarradaleGolf.com
Carradale Golf Club Scorecard
Carradale is a nine-hole course of 2,292 yards and par 32 from the white tees. The longest hole is the 2nd, Kilbrannan, at 341 yards. The 3rd, Castle, a 233-yard par 3, is stroke index 2.
| Hole | Name | White | Yellow | Par | S.I. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hazel Hill | 162 | 143 | 3 | 14 |
| 2 | Kilbrannan | 341 | 315 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | Castle | 233 | 228 | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | Hillocks | 276 | 248 | 4 | 10 |
| 5 | Cruban Buoy | 286 | 263 | 4 | 12 |
| 6 | Pudding Bowl | 306 | 244 | 4 | 3 |
| 7 | Port Righ | 186 | 167 | 3 | 16 |
| 8 | Whins | 209 | 120 | 3 | 5 |
| 9 | Airds | 293 | 266 | 4 | 8 |
| Total | 2,292 | 1,994 | 32 | ||
Par and stroke index shown for the white tees. From the red tees the course measures 1,960 yards, par 33; red-tee yardages and stroke indexes are on the card above. Yardages from the club’s scorecard; check with the club for any recent changes.
Carradale Golf Club Course Map
Carradale Golf Club: Frequently Asked Questions
How many holes does Carradale Golf Club have?
Carradale Golf Club is a nine-hole course with a par of 32. Golfers wanting a full round can play the nine holes twice as an 18-hole round.
Can visitors play Carradale Golf Club?
Yes. Visitors are welcome, and the course is seldom crowded. At the time of our visit in August 2026, green fees were £20 for nine holes, paid by honesty box. Check the club’s website for current fees.
Is Carradale a good golf course for children and families?
Yes. We played it as a family of five, including a six-year-old playing his first round on a full course. The atmosphere is relaxed and nobody hurries you, but the blind shots, slopes and small greens still challenge experienced golfers.
Is Carradale a links course?
No. Carradale is a heathland and moorland course set on the hillside above Port Righ, with small greens and natural hazards. It has been described as the most sporting nine-hole course in Scotland.
Where is Carradale Golf Club?
Carradale Golf Club is in the village of Carradale on the east coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll, around 15 miles north of Campbeltown. The course looks across the Kilbrannan Sound to the Isle of Arran.
What other golf courses are near Carradale?
Kintyre is home to Machrihanish Golf Club, famous for its opening tee shot across the beach, as well as Machrihanish Dunes and Dunaverty. Carradale members enjoy reciprocal rates at several clubs on Kintyre and Arran.
Carradale Golf Club: Visitor Information
- Carradale Golf Club is a nine-hole golf course on the east coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll.
- The course looks across the Kilbrannan Sound towards the Isle of Arran. If you are making the journey down Kintyre, pair it with Machrihanish Golf Club. Read our review here.
- Founded in 1906, it can be played as two loops of nine. See the club’s course guide for details.
- At the time of our visit, visitor green fees were £20 for nine holes, with payment by honesty box.
- Annual adult membership is £230 for 2026, with reciprocal rates available at Machrihanish, Dunaverty and other golf clubs on Kintyre and Arran. See the club’s green fees and membership details for current information.
