Golf Ireland · The Companion Track
The Parallel Fairway
Seven companion days, one for each of the great Irish golf destinations. Built for the person who does not play, and built to be the better day.
The short answer
A links round is four and a half hours walking, five where buggies are banned, plus travel. The companion has a full day, and in Ireland that day is unusually good: the marquee courses sit beside the Mourne Mountains, the Burren, the Antrim coast, Glenveagh, and the best hotel spa in the country.
Each track below has a morning, a lunch timed to the round, an afternoon, an honest wet-weather substitution, and one thing we would not bother with. Nothing is more than thirty minutes from the first tee.
The seven tracks
Sheephaven Bay, County Donegal
The Rosapenna Day
A mill shop, a headland drive, and a castle garden under Errigal.
While the group plays St Patrick's Links, Rosapenna
Rosapenna is the most remote base in this collection, and that is the reason the companion day here is the best of the seven. There is no town to browse and no lobby to sit in. What there is instead is a peninsula almost nobody drives, a mill that has been weaving for four generations, and a Victorian garden at the foot of a mountain.
We plan this day in one loop, anticlockwise, so nothing is retraced. The golfer walks St Patrick's. The companion drives Rosguill and comes back with something better than a photograph.
St Patrick's is walking only, which puts the round closer to five hours than four. Add the three miles each way from the hotel and the day is genuinely yours until early evening.
Read the full The Rosapenna Day guide- IMid-morning, once the golfer has left
McNutt of Donegal, Downings
Ten minutes from the hotel, in the village
A working weaving mill with a shop attached, still making the tweed and lambswool that Donegal is named for in the trade. Buy the throw rather than the scarf, and buy it here rather than in Dublin, where the same cloth carries a city markup.
- IIEarly afternoon
The harbour at Downings
Beside the pier, five minutes on
Crab and langoustine landed at the pier the day you eat them, in a room that does not care how you are dressed. This is the least ceremonial lunch in the collection and the one our guests describe most often afterwards.
- IIIAfternoon, allow three hours with the drive
Glenveagh Castle and its walled gardens
About an hour inland, under Mount Errigal
A lakeside castle at the end of a glen with a garden that has no business surviving this far north, and does. The walk from the visitor centre along Lough Veagh is the part people remember, not the house.
If it rains
Donegal rain arrives sideways. Swap Glenveagh for the Atlantic Drive around Rosguill, which is at its most theatrical in weather, and take the mill shop slowly instead.
What to bring
A proper shell, not an umbrella. The wind here takes umbrellas apart.
What we would skip
Trying to reach Malin Head and back in the same day. It is three hours of driving for a headland you will see for twenty minutes.
Plan this leg
- The St Patrick's Links collection
What the golfer in your group is actually walking.
- Glenveagh National Park
The garden, the glen and how long the walk takes.
- Three days at Rosapenna
How the three links and the non-golf days interleave.
Reading this for the golfer instead? The St Patrick's Links collection covers the course, the booking window and where to stay.
Newcastle, County Down
The Mourne Day
A forest river walk, Dundrum Bay oysters, and a seawater bath.
While the group plays Royal County Down
Royal County Down sits with the Mourne Mountains directly behind the first tee, which means the companion here has the rarest thing in Irish golf travel: somewhere to go on foot. No car, no driving on the left, no map.
The day divides cleanly. Mountains in the morning while the light is on them, seafood in the middle, and something restorative in the afternoon so that the person who walked eighteen holes is not the only one who feels looked after.
A Royal County Down round with a caddie runs four and a half hours, and the clubhouse lunch afterwards runs longer than anyone admits. Plan on being free until late afternoon.
Read the full The Mourne Day guide- IMorning
Tollymore Forest Park
Ten minutes inland from the first tee
Granite bridges over the Shimna River, an arboretum planted in the eighteenth century, and Gothic follies in the trees. The riverside loop is the one to walk and it does not require hill fitness.
- IIMiddle of the day
Mourne Seafood Bar, Dundrum
Fifteen minutes north, in the village
Oysters from the bay you can see from the door, and turbot cooked without decoration. Book it before you fly, because the room is small and the locals know.
- IIIAfternoon
A seawater and seaweed bath in Newcastle
In town, walkable from the hotel
Hot seawater and bladderwrack in a private tub, a tradition on this coast long before spa menus existed. It is unglamorous, it works, and it is the reason our guests sleep properly on this leg.
If it rains
Tollymore is better in rain than out of it, so keep the walk. Swap the afternoon for the Slieve Donard thermal suite and the sea view from the pool.
What to bring
Boots that can take wet granite, and a swimsuit for the afternoon.
What we would skip
Driving the full Mourne coastal road to Carlingford and back. It is a beautiful road and it eats the entire day.
Plan this leg
- The Royal County Down collection
The front nine, the ballot, and the town at its feet.
- The Northern Ireland Edit
How this coast fits the wider northern trip.
- Spa hotels worth the detour
Where the afternoon half of this day is done properly.
Reading this for the golfer instead? The Royal County Down collection covers the course, the booking window and where to stay.
North Antrim Coast
The Causeway Day
Cliff-edge ruins, a beach shack lunch, and casks in a Bushmills warehouse.
While the group plays Royal Portrush
The Antrim coast is the only place in this collection where the companion day outranks the round on pure spectacle, and we say that with Royal Portrush in front of us. Basalt cliffs, a castle falling into the sea, and the Causeway itself all sit inside twenty minutes of the first tee.
The trick is sequencing. Everything here is ruined by coach traffic between eleven and three, so we go early, eat on the sand, and spend the afternoon indoors with whiskey while the crowds do the reverse.
The Dunluce Links takes four and a half hours and Americans usually add the range beforehand. You have from breakfast to late afternoon.
Read the full The Causeway Day guide- IEarly, before the coaches
Dunluce Castle and Whitepark Bay
Five and fifteen minutes east
A sixteenth-century ruin on a stack with the Atlantic working underneath it, then a white chalk strand that is usually empty because the path down deters day trippers. Do them in that order.
- IIMiddle of the day
Harry's Shack, Portstewart Strand
Fifteen minutes west, on the beach itself
Fish cooked over open flame in a wooden hut on the sand, with the dunes of Portstewart behind. It is the least formal lunch on the north coast and the one we book first.
- IIIAfternoon
Old Bushmills Distillery
Ten minutes inland
A working distillery rather than a visitor centre with a still in it, and the warehouse tastings are where the day justifies itself. Ask what is being drawn from cask the week you visit.
If it rains
Reverse the day. Distillery in the morning, lunch indoors at the Bushmills Inn, and take the coast late when the light after Atlantic rain is the best you will get.
What to bring
Grippy shoes for the Whitepark path, and a designated driver for the afternoon.
What we would skip
The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge in season. A timed ticket, a queue, and a forty-minute walk for a thirty-second crossing.
Plan this leg
- The Royal Portrush collection
Calamity Corner, the visitor calendar, and where to sleep.
- Bushmills Inn
The base that puts both halves of this day inside ten minutes.
- Irish Whiskey
How to taste properly, and what to bring home.
Reading this for the golfer instead? The Royal Portrush collection covers the course, the booking window and where to stay.
County Clare, Wild Atlantic Way
The Burren Day
A herb garden in the limestone, chowder in a village, and the cliffs nobody queues for.
While the group plays Lahinch
Clare is the county where the companion day is genuinely a different holiday. The Burren is a limestone plateau with Mediterranean flowers growing in its cracks, and it is twenty minutes from a links course. Nowhere else in Ireland does that.
We also send people to the wrong cliffs on purpose. The Cliffs of Moher have a car park and a visitor centre. Kilkee has an amphitheatre of sea stacks, a five-mile loop, and almost nobody on it.
Lahinch plays quickly by Irish standards, around four hours, but the clubhouse afterwards is sociable. Expect the golfer back mid-afternoon at the earliest.
Read the full The Burren Day guide- IMorning
The Burren Perfumery, Carron
Thirty minutes north, inland
A small distillation room, an organic herb garden in the limestone, and a tea room that bakes its own soda bread. It is the one place in Clare our guests ask to go back to.
- IIMiddle of the day
A Lisdoonvarna or Lahinch kitchen
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes
Wild Honey Inn for a proper sit-down lunch, or seafood broth in Lahinch village if the morning ran long. Both are booked out in summer without a reservation.
- IIIAfternoon, allow two and a half hours
The Kilkee Cliff Walk
Forty-five minutes south
A looped clifftop walk around Kilkee's sea stacks and blowholes, on grass, with the Atlantic on three sides. Shorten it at the halfway gate if the wind is up.
If it rains
Swap the cliff walk for Ennistymon: a cascade falls in the middle of town, two good bookshops, and the St Tola goat cheese farm on the way back.
What to bring
Layers. The Burren is ten degrees warmer in the rocks than on the Kilkee cliff edge.
What we would skip
The Cliffs of Moher between ten and four. Go at seven in the evening on another day, or not at all.
Plan this leg
- The Lahinch collection
The Klondyke, the Dell, and the village around them.
- The County Clare Edit
The Burren, the coast, and where to stay.
- Walking Ireland
The coastal walks we send people on, graded honestly.
Reading this for the golfer instead? The Lahinch collection covers the course, the booking window and where to stay.
North Kerry, Atlantic Coast
The North Kerry Day
Cliff meadows, a market town lunch, and a hot seaweed bath on the strand.
While the group plays Ballybunion
Ballybunion is a real Kerry village that has refused to become a resort, which is wonderful for the round and unhelpful for the companion expecting boutiques. What north Kerry has instead is a coastline almost no visitor sees and a market town with a literary spine.
This is the quietest day of the seven and deliberately so. It is built for the traveller who has already done the Ring of Kerry and would rather have an afternoon than an itinerary.
The Old Course takes four and a half hours, more into wind, and most groups add the Cashen afterwards. Assume a long day if they do.
Read the full The North Kerry Day guide- IMorning
The Bromore Cliffs
Ten minutes north, on private farmland
A clifftop meadow path above sea caves and nesting birds, opened and maintained by the family who farm it. There is no coach park and there never will be.
- IIMiddle of the day
Listowel
Twenty-five minutes inland
A market town that produced more writers than towns ten times its size. Kerry lamb and market fish at lunch, then John B. Keane's own pub snug for twenty minutes afterwards.
- IIILate afternoon
A seaweed bath on the Ladies' Beach
In Ballybunion village, walkable
Hot seawater and hand-cut seaweed in a private tub above the strand, run on this beach for well over a century. Go late so you finish as the golfers come off eighteen.
If it rains
Listowel absorbs a wet day well: the writers' museum, the castle, and a long lunch. Keep the seaweed bath, which is better in rain.
What to bring
A swimsuit, and shoes for wet farm grass on the cliff path.
What we would skip
Driving to Dingle and back on a round day. It is beautiful and it is four hours of car.
Plan this leg
- The Ballybunion collection
The seventh cliff, the eleventh green, and how to book.
- The Kerry Edit
What else in Kerry is worth the drive, and what is not.
- Adare Manor
The luxury base ninety minutes east of the links.
Reading this for the golfer instead? The Ballybunion collection covers the course, the booking window and where to stay.
County Limerick, The Golden Vale
The Estate Day
Falconry under cedars, a thatched village lunch, and the spa that earns its price.
While the group plays Adare Manor
Adare is the one destination where the companion never has to leave the property, and the only one where we would tell them not to. Eight hundred and forty acres of restored parkland, a spa built to international standard, and a walled garden most guests never find.
The day is therefore about pace rather than distance. Nothing here needs a car, which after a week of Irish driving is the luxury nobody books for and everybody remembers.
A round on the Fazio course with a caddie takes four and a half hours, and the walk back to the house adds to it. You have the whole morning and most of the afternoon.
Read the full The Estate Day guide- IMorning
Falconry and the walled garden
On the estate
A Harris hawk flown from the glove through ancient cedars, then the restored walled garden behind the house, which is the quietest ten acres in County Limerick.
- IIMiddle of the day
Adare village
Outside the estate gate, on foot
A row of thatched cottages that has been rehearsing this for four centuries, with a farm-to-table room at one end and antique shops between. Walk out and back rather than driving.
- IIIAfternoon
The Spa at Adare Manor
In the house
The best hotel spa in Ireland by some distance, and the treatment list is long enough that you should book before you arrive. Ask for the relaxation room overlooking the Maigue.
If it rains
Nothing changes. This is the only track in the collection that is entirely weatherproof, which is why we put mixed groups here when the forecast is bad.
What to bring
Nothing. Adare supplies the boots, the coats and the gloves.
What we would skip
A Limerick city excursion. There is a good museum and it is not worth leaving the estate for.
Plan this leg
- The Adare Manor collection
The Fazio rebuild, the Ryder Cup year, and the booking rule.
- Adare Manor
The rooms, the rates and what the estate includes.
- Spa hotels worth the detour
How the Adare spa compares with the rest of the country.
Reading this for the golfer instead? The Adare Manor collection covers the course, the booking window and where to stay.
Sutton Peninsula, County Dublin
The Coast Road Day
A botanic castle garden, lobster on Howth pier, and a lighthouse loop.
While the group plays Portmarnock
Portmarnock is the only round in this collection with a capital city behind it, and the companion day should not waste that. It should also not be a city day, because the golfer will want dinner in Dublin that evening and nobody needs two.
So this one runs north along the coast instead. Gardens, a fishing harbour, and a cliff loop, all inside twenty-five minutes of the first tee and all reachable without a car if you would rather not drive.
Portmarnock groups usually take an early tee time to protect the evening. An eight o'clock start has the golfer back by one, so this day is front-loaded.
Read the full The Coast Road Day guide- IEarly morning
Malahide Castle gardens
Ten minutes north
A botanic collection of several thousand species inside a walled Victorian garden, with glasshouses and a castle attached. Go at opening and you will have the walled section to yourself.
- IILate morning or midday
Howth pier
Fifteen minutes south, around the headland
Lobster and razor clams looking straight at the boats that brought them in. The harbour is touristed and the seafood is still the best within an hour of Dublin.
- IIIEarly afternoon
The Baily lighthouse cliff loop, Howth
From the harbour, on foot
An hour and a half of clifftop path around the Howth headland with Dublin Bay on one side and the Irish Sea on the other. The path is uneven in stretches and worth it.
If it rains
Stay with Malahide, which has enough indoors to hold a morning, then take the train into the city for tea at The Shelbourne rather than walking the headland in weather.
What to bring
A Leap card if you are using the coastal train, which is faster than the car at rush hour.
What we would skip
Trying to fit the Book of Kells in as well. Give Trinity its own morning on a non-golf day.
Plan this leg
- The Portmarnock collection
The Old course hole by hole, and the Dublin evening after it.
- The Dublin Edit
Where to eat and stay when the round is done.
- The Shelbourne
The city base most Portmarnock guests book.
Reading this for the golfer instead? The Portmarnock collection covers the course, the booking window and where to stay.
The method
How we build a two track day
Start from the tee time, not the guidebook. Everything on the companion track is scheduled backwards from the moment the round ends, because the single thing that ruins a mixed golf trip is one half of the group waiting on the other. A morning tee time makes the companion day front-loaded. An afternoon tee time inverts it entirely, and the spa moves to the morning.
Keep the radius tight. Nothing here is more than thirty minutes from the clubhouse, which sounds restrictive and is the opposite: it means the companion can join the back nine, meet for lunch, or stay out longer without anybody recalculating the evening. The trips that fail are the ones where somebody drove ninety minutes to a famous thing.
Give the day one anchor with real weight. A mill that has woven for four generations, a garden under Errigal, a bathhouse that predates the word spa. One of those beats four ordinary stops, and it is the thing that gets described at dinner. We would rather publish three moves we stand behind than eight we do not.
Then write the wet version down. Ireland does not owe you a dry day, and a track without a rain plan is a track that collapses at nine in the morning. Every one of the seven above names its substitution specifically, and one of them, Adare, needs none at all.
Common questions
The Parallel Fairway. Common Questions
Plan both tracks at once
Tell us who plays, who does not, and how many nights you have. We build the golf and the companion day as one itinerary, which is the only way either of them works.