Golf courses in West of Ireland

The West of Ireland is golfing country of rare character, a wild Atlantic coastline of dunes, bays and big skies that has shaped some of the most natural links golf in the world. Stretching through counties such as Sligo, Mayo and Galway, the region holds around 31 courses, and the very best of them are carved straight out of the seaside terrain. Enniscrone winds through towering dunes above a vast strand, while the rugged links at Connemara unfolds beneath the Twelve Bens mountains on the edge of the wild Atlantic, exposed to whatever the weather brings.

There is more to the West than its links, however. Westport Golf Club offers parkland golf in the shadow of the holy mountain Croagh Patrick beside Clew Bay, Galway Bay Golf Resort sits out on a peninsula with water on three sides, and Glenlo Abbey provides a gentler estate setting near Galway city. The weather is changeable and the wind is part of the game, but that is exactly the draw: honest, scenic, often humbling golf, played among some of Ireland's most dramatic scenery and finished with warm hospitality and traditional music in lively local towns. For the travelling golfer, this is the romantic heart of the Irish links experience.