North West Golf Club

North West Golf Club is home to a thoroughly enjoyable and unpretentious links golf course, the six opening holes of which are played directly alongside scenic Lough Swilly. Here, a few kilometres south of Buncrana, you'll find a well presented course that gently meanders across a landscape of low level dunes. Quite a contrast to the towering sand hills and hellacious bunkering of the likes of Ballyliffin, Rosapenna or Portsalon ( ... which are all within an hour's drive).

North West is a more restrained links course, where the dunes, bunkers and rippling fairways are less exuberant in scale, but still provide the backdrop for an absorbing round. As you set off by the side of Lough Swilly, you'll enjoy an outer front-nine loop that wraps around the inner back-nine. On the estuary, the Buncrana-Rathmullan car ferry chugs along, setting an easy-going tempo for a relaxed golf swing. Beyond the Lough lie attractive hills and mountains.

Although less dramatic and more compact that its more renowned peers, the generally good-width fairways are well-separated by bands of not overly penal rough, a scattering of gorse bushes, and occasional water hazards. The east side of the course, versus the Lough side, runs next to a reasonably busy local road, but not one that will disturb your enjoyment of the course.

Pick of the holes: if you think the par-3 8th (Piffler) is short (and interestingly, played back over the 9th tee; as the 9th is played back over the 8th tees!), then wait for the par-3 16th (Fairy). This smidge of a hole is ringed by four pot bunkers, water is in play front and right, and slick run-off areas also add to this wee-demon's 93-yard challenge.