ABERDEENSHIRE BY TRAIN
Jeremy Ellwood takes to the rails to explore this far-flung county, which is rich in both history and memorable golf courses
Agolf trip by train and taxi, rather than plane and hire car, had been on my radar for some time. All looked to be progressing smoothly in February 2020 when plans were finally firmed up during a Golf Aberdeenshire media event. There are 55 courses in the county, from classic and modern links to fine parkland, heathland and riverside layouts and beautiful nine-holers. That April, I would travel up via the direct LNER Azuma (Japanese for ‘east’) service from King’s Cross to Stonehaven, before relying mostly on taxis to get around, with the occasional additional train journey. Sadly, everyone’s plans for April 2020 were thrown into disarray, and after two more false starts, it
wasn’t until August 2021 that I finally found myself crossing the Forth rail bridge for just the second time. Stonehaven was now just an hour away after a relaxing journey up from King’s Cross savouring the delights of Holy Island, Alnwick and Goswick Links through the window as we approached the border, and even seals basking on the rocks near Burntisland as we hugged the Firth.
Earlier, my logistics concerns about crossing London by tube with clubs and suitcase in tow, or by taxi at great expense, were allayed when the helpful ticket office clerk advised me to change at East Croydon for St Pancras, and then just walk 200 yards to King’s Cross. It had all gone like clockwork and now I was about to tee off at an intriguing clifftop course I’d seen from the window on that previous train journey.
Arriving at Stonehaven station, I was whisked to the course by taxi and teed off at 5.45pm, hoping to beat the daylight. Just standing on the 1st tee is an exhilarating experience, gazing out to sea and noting both the ruins of a church and worrying OOB posts on the right. In my eagerness not to carve it right after many hours
on a train, I came perilously close to hitting it OOB left instead!
The holes the sea side of the railway are delightful and often unique. On the long par-3 2nd, you play back over an inlet, while the short par-4 5th and par-3 7th play either way across a wide gully near the railway viaduct. After four holes across the railway, it’s back over for a memorable run for home that starts with a mesmerising ocean backdrop on the steeply down-and-up 12th, then a completely blind long par 3.
After putting out in near-darkness, it was back on the train for the final run up to Aberdeen, where, mercifully, my Station Hotel room was just across the road from the platforms. I slept well.
A front nine to remember
The next day dawned bright for my return visits to Royal Aberdeen and Murcar Links, and although I was taxied from one to the other, you could actually play both in one big 36-hole loop (if allowed!) as they sit back-to-back a few miles north of the city.
Royal Aberdeen boasts a spellbinding front nine that many – me included – regard as one of the finest stretches of links golf in the world. After playing down towards the sea on the 1st, you turn left and play along shallow valleys between dunes via rumpled fairways and rolling greens. It is simply magnificent, and you’ll well remember the short par-3 8th that switches back briefly the other way as its narrow green is flanked by no fewer than ten bunkers.
Look north at the turn and you’ll see Murcar’s opening quartet, which plays back and forth a little before the links forges out along the coast after the excellent, slightly uphill par-3 5th. The green here is cut awkwardly into a shelf, so there’s really no good miss. This hole starts a cracking trio, with the testing dogleg-left, long par-4 6th followed by another stirring par 4 where a vast bank of gorse on the left is to be avoided at all costs.
Downwind, mid-to-long hitters may be tempted by the short par-4 9th and 11th holes, especially as it will mostly be into the wind after that. The pick of the run for home is perhaps the par-4 15th, where the approach is played to a raised green the other side of a winding burn, or the par 3 that follows, which plays back across the 15th.
Home for the next two nights was the fabulous Meldrum House, which I’d come home raving about after my previous visit. The country house hotel, with its main baronial building, is something else, and the golf course, which opened in 1998, is an excellent layout. It has several strong holes, including the very different par-5 11th, where 15 bunkers adorn the bank between fairway and green.
I’d undertaken part of the journey from Murcar to Meldrum by train from Dyce to Inverurie, and the railway theme was kind of revived next day, too, on my visit to Cruden Bay further up the Aberdeenshire
coast. Originally there was a grand railway hotel to rival Gleneagles here, and although hotel and railway are long since gone, you can read much about both in the museum recently opened in the old clubhouse by the 1st tee.
What remains, though, is a fabulous links touched by the hands of Old Tom Morris, Archie Simpson, Tom Simpson and Herbert Fowler. On my previous winter visit, certain early holes had been closed, so I was pleased to finally play the stirring long par-3 4th along the river to a wide shelf green, where anything short could roll back some way.
Love is blind
There are some famously blind shots here – most notably the long par-3 15th across the side of a hill – while the 9th hole and 10th tee enjoy a hugely elevated setting. There’s even a ‘spare’ par 3 at the far end. A perhaps slightly unsung hero for me was the tempting short par-4 amphitheatre 8th up a steep-sided valley, which surely tempts many into having a pop.
Royal Aberdeen, Murcar and Cruden Bay all boast less well-known second courses, and there are two courses, too, at Sport Aberdeen’s Hazlehead Park, where I enjoyed my final round on what is now named the Mackenzie Championship course.
There are many fine holes on this pine-lined Alister Mackenzie layout, including the short 5th across a gully to a wide, steep-fronted green. From the 10th and 11th, you enjoy fine views across the Pines course towards the harbour and city, and coming home, the downhill par-5 17th is a great birdie chance if you
can shape it nicely round the right-to-left dogleg. I couldn’t and had to settle for par!
Having woken up in the elegant Chester Hotel in Aberdeen’s west end, then played my way around one of Mackenzie’s northernmost creations, it was time to hit the rails once more for the sevenand-a-half-hour jaunt back down to London, before finally hitting the sack back home in Sussex early next morning.
It was great to have ‘done’ golf a different way. No, the train can’t take you right to the clubhouse door, but being ferried about by LNER and a reliable taxi driver, the whole trip seemed so much more relaxing than my usual airport/hire car rush, even if the journey takes longer. And yes, I think I would do it all again sometime, somewhere…