The Golf Collection
Royal Portrush: How To Play, Stay And Eat
The Dunluce Links, Calamity Corner, and the Causeway coast behind it.
Royal Portrush is the course that came back. The 2019 Open reintroduced it to the world, and Martin Ebert's routing changes made a great course into a modern championship venue. The Dunluce is now the piece of Irish golf that visiting Americans most want to play, and rightly so.
But the round is only the middle of the trip. The Antrim coast around it is one of the most cinematic stretches of shoreline in Europe. The Causeway, Dunluce Castle, the Bushmills distillery, all sit within twenty minutes of the first tee.
This collection reads in four chapters: how the course actually plays, how to spend the three days around it, where to eat when you come off the links, and how to book the tee time itself.
Read In Order
Four chapters, in sequence.
The way we walk visiting friends through Royal Portrush. Play first, plan second, eat third.
- I
Chapter I
How To Play
The Colt routing, Ebert's new holes, and what Calamity actually asks of you.
10 min readRead chapter → - II
Chapter II
Three Days Around
A Bushmills base, the Causeway morning, and the flexible third day south.
10 min readRead chapter → - III
Chapter III
Where To Eat
Mermaid, The French Rooms, Harry's Shack, and the dining sequence we recommend.
10 min readRead chapter → - IV
Chapter IV
How To Book
The visitor calendar, the online release, and the sterling deposit that catches Americans out.
8 min readRead chapter →
Continue Planning
The trip around Royal Portrush.
Where to sleep, how to shape the wider week, and which destination to open next.
Bushmills Inn
The three-night base twenty minutes from the first tee, closer still to the Causeway and the distillery.
Seven Days · Ireland Golf, North to South
How Portrush anchors the northern arc before the drive down to Lahinch and Ballybunion.
Open the itineraryBefore You Book
What visitors usually ask about Royal Portrush
- Can visitors play the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush?
- Yes, on designated visitor days, which vary by season and by year. Times are released roughly a year ahead and the best windows go inside a week. Book direct through the club's visitor office, and if the Dunluce is closed, the Valley Links is a genuine round in its own right, not a consolation prize.
- How has the Ebert redesign changed the course since The Open?
- Martin Ebert built two new holes (7 and 8) into the dunes above the Skerries and rerouted the closing stretch. The card is harder from the tips and more photogenic from anywhere. If you last played Portrush before 2016, you are effectively playing a new course.
- When is the best time to play Royal Portrush?
- Late May through September. Northern Ireland's Causeway Coast weather is more forgiving than the west, but the wind off the Skerries is the shot you cannot rehearse. July and August book out fastest because of the school holidays; June and September are the local's answer.
- What should we tip caddies at Royal Portrush?
- Caddies at the top Irish clubs are professionals and the tip is the largest line item of the round. Budget €70 to €100 per bag on top of the caddie fee, more if you have played well or been walked around a big course in bad weather. Cash, in euro (or sterling in Northern Ireland), handed over at the eighteenth.
- Do we pay in pounds or euros at Royal Portrush?
- Pounds sterling. Portrush is in Northern Ireland, which uses GBP, not the euro. Bring cash for the caddie and the halfway hut. Cards work everywhere else, but the human transactions on a links course still happen in paper.
Before You Play
Before you play the Dunluce.
Portrush checks handicap certificates at the pro shop and expects proper links attire. The essays below are the working manual we hand every visitor.
The BallotMost relevant here
Which courses need a handicap
Dunluce enforces a certificate check. Route higher-index players onto the Valley Links.
ReadThe Caddie
How much to tip
£50 base, £80 for the caddie who talks you through Calamity. In sterling, in cash.
ReadThe Bag
Renting clubs in Ireland
Which pro shops carry the good sets, and when to reserve.
ReadThe Clubhouse
The real dress code
Portrush is a proper championship clubhouse. Collared shirt, tailored trousers, no denim in the bar.
ReadThe Freight
Shipping your clubs
Ship to the Bushmills Inn or the Adelphi Portrush, not to the pro shop.
ReadThe Budget
What four days actually cost
The honest line-item number, green fees to the last pint.
ReadThe Walk
Caddie, buggy, or trolley
Where buggies are banned, and where the caddie is the point.
ReadThe Solo Round
Playing Ireland as a single
Which clubs pair a party of one, and which times to ask for.
Read
The questions we answer before every Ireland golf trip, gathered in one index.
The full planning Q&A