Editorial Review
Old Head Golf Links
The Atmosphere
“Perched on a 220-acre promontory jutting into the Atlantic. Nine holes have ocean views on both sides.”
Old Head Golf Links is one of the most visually dramatic golf courses on earth. Perched on a 220-acre promontory jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, nine of its eighteen holes have ocean views on both sides. The course is theatrical, polarizing, and absolutely memorable. Stay in the colorful harbor town of Kinsale and make a full day of it. The seafood, the galleries, and the coastal walk are excellent.
The long version
The clubhouse road runs out to a promontory with the Atlantic on both sides, and the ninth green sits closer to a lighthouse than to any other hole on the course.
You drive toward Old Head along a narrow spit of land with cliffs falling away on either side, and before a single club has come out of the bag, the course has already made its argument. This is not subtle golf. It is theatrical, built on a 220-acre promontory jutting into the Atlantic near Kinsale, and nine of its eighteen holes have ocean views on both sides at once.
Standing on an early tee with the wind pushing at your back and gulls working the cliff face below, you understand quickly why this course splits opinion so cleanly among people who care about golf architecture. Nobody plays Old Head and comes away neutral.
“It is theatrical, polarizing, and absolutely memorable, and it never once apologizes for being all three.”
What the round is actually like
The scale of the setting can overwhelm the golf itself, at least at first: cliff edges drop over a hundred feet in places, the lighthouse anchors the far point of the promontory, and several greens sit close enough to the edge that a wayward shot disappears for good. It is designed to be photographed as much as played, and it succeeds at both.
The course is more forgiving underfoot than the setting suggests, wide fairways in places, but the visual intensity of playing along sheer cliffs affects decision-making in a way that a calmer inland course never would. Nerve matters here as much as skill.
Who it suits
Old Head suits golfers who want the single most photographed round of their trip and are willing to pay for the privilege, and it suits groups celebrating an occasion more than golfers chasing a pure architectural pilgrimage. It is an event as much as a round.
It is not, and does not pretend to be, a traditional Irish links in the mold of Ballybunion or Lahinch. It is its own genre, closer to the great cliff-top courses of California than anything historically Irish, and enjoying it means accepting that distinction rather than fighting it.
Getting on
Book well ahead, particularly for a twilight round, when the low sun over the Atlantic turns the whole promontory gold. Kinsale itself, ten minutes away, is one of Ireland's most likeable small towns, with a harbor, galleries, and some of the country's best seafood restaurants.
Make the golf part of a full Kinsale day rather than a rushed stop: the coastal walk and the town's restaurants deserve the afternoon and evening that follow the round.
What we would not pretend
It is expensive relative to most Irish links and some serious golfers find the drama overshadows the architecture, feeling more like a spectacle than a considered course. Go in knowing which of those two experiences you are paying for.
How we would use it
We fold Old Head into a Kinsale overnight: a twilight round, dinner at Fishy Fishy, and a coastal walk the next morning before continuing west toward Kerry. It works best as one dramatic day, not the centerpiece of a whole golf itinerary.
Rooms Worth Requesting
What it actually feels like.
Book a twilight round for the most dramatic light. Have dinner in Kinsale afterward at Fishy Fishy.
Why we recommend it
A space that justifies the journey.
Theatrical, polarizing, and absolutely memorable. Stay in Kinsale and make a day of it.
Experience Old
If you understand the feeling of this place, you will naturally want to stay.
View Tee TimesOne of Ireland's most sought-after courses