The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Golfing paradise Sensitive refurbishment and wonderful hospitality accentuate link to the past
IT was, in its way, an easy mistake to make. A previous visitor, doubtless seeking a shorthand way of describing the condition the property had been in before its recent redevelopment, had put in print that Links House had been “unloved”. The family who had owned it for many years were understandably upset – because nothing could have been further from the truth.
In every nook and cranny of what had been a beloved home, cherished memories lingered. An element of decay in terms of the fabric was an aspect of its role in nurturing successive generations and, in any case, added to that charm.
Enter Todd Warnock, one of the thousands of Americans to have followed in the footsteps of the golfing guru Tom Watson in making pilgrimage to this little corner of the Highlands.
Admitting that he would not have been interested had it been even 100 yards down the road, he saw immediately the potential of an imposing property in such a hallowed place and set about the task of offering it a new purpose that would allow many more to enjoy it.
Perfectly situated as it is he knew he could provide Royal Dornoch with a five star facility closer to its clubhouse and first tee than any other great championship course in the world.
He was ready to throw vast sums at the project and the result has maintained a fitting sense of grandeur while sensitively updating the interior.
The library, with its dangerously tempting array of quality malt whiskies and the drawing room, with its roaring fire, are both lovely places in which to enjoy afternoon tea or pre-dinner drinks.
As for dinner itself, to be savoured in another spacious room featuring a log fire, you are at the mercy of one Darren Miranda, their head chef whose name hints at both his Scottish and Spanish roots.
This is not something to be feared, however, because for all that there is no choice within the menu, residents are in the hands of a culinary genius, devoted to extracting the best from local produce that he insists on using in-season, to the extent he believes chicken should only be served later in the year. Who knew?
Yet as Warnock and his team sought to maximise the experience of being in a place that is part of mainland Scotland yet in many ways has an almost other-worldly feel, a reminder that they live in the real world came from their dealings with the planning authorities.
To the horror of most, not least golf club members, the planners tried to insist that to ensure that this listed building retained supremacy on the site, the additional quarters Warnock wanted to build on the little strip of land between it and the clubhouse be a featureless concrete erection.
He was having none of it, sticking to his belief that The Mews, which provides forty per cent of the guest accommodation, should be in keeping with the style of the original old Manse house. His persistence, accompanied by a good architect and common-sense local public support saw him win the day.
Only on the closest inspection is it detectable that The Mews is more recently constructed from the same type of stone as its older relative. Contained within both buildings are eight elegant bedrooms finished to the highest spec with tweeddecorated antique furnishings, evocative artwork and marbled en-suite bathrooms, complemented by the modernity of easy Wifi access and Sky Sports.
In this haven for those who prefer to be outdoors there is the added joy of the Bothy House, a neat little lodge right at the top of the steps leading to a gate that is on the other side of a single track road from Royal Dornoch’s first tee, as close as the members’ own locker room.
The equipment contained therein offers a clue to the fact that for all its name and location, Links House is not exclusively a base for golf. Fishing rods, reels and lures as well as sets of waders are all available, as are beats on the rivers the eight rooms are named after – the Beauly, the Brora, the Helmsdale, the Oykel and the Shin in the main house and the Cassley, the Carron and the Conon in The Mews.
Scenic walking routes can be recommended by staff and there are a
couple of bikes available for those who want to roam a bit further in this most beautiful corner of the world, not least on a spring morning, even those on which bright early sunshine can, as it did on this visit, suddenly give way to a miniature blizzard.
Look seaward and vast swathes of empty, sandy beach stretch out; turn to face inland and the view is of snow-covered mountains which, as the weeks pass, gradually turn brown and purple as the broom and heather emerge from that covering.
Golf was this town’s portal to the wider world and the greatest attraction of Links House is that proximity to a course that fits perfectly with the land.
That is partly down to Mother Nature, but the skill required to take full advantage of the terrain was exemplified by a discovery on reaching the third tee this time around.
“Do you notice anything different about the hole?” I was asked by Alex, one of the two locals, marvellous companions on a blustery morning.
Only when I admitted otherwise did he then explain that the fairway had, since my last visit a year earlier, been shifted some 30 yards to the right. Bunkers and even whin bushes had been relocated by the greenkeeping staff to bring about changes partly designed to protect adjacent houses, but which have the added benefit of toughening the hole up for longer hitters. Yet in aesthetic terms it is the same scenic hole that has always offered the first real taste of how Royal Dornoch sweeps around the bay.
This was to be a day on which exposure to local practice reinforced views of what makes the place so special.
As we set off into the wind off the ninth tee Neil, the club secretary and manager, whom I had met a year earlier and had consequently kindly extended an invitation to join this hearty Sunday-set, hauled out a flask. “Old Pulteney 12-year-old,” he confided. Ten minutes later as, on the tenth tee, we prepared for the home stretch, Alex unzipped his bag to reveal one of the extra benefits of using an electric caddy car. “Tennent’s or Budweiser?” he demanded. I protested that I had just had a whisky and would be fine. “It’s tradition!” he asserted. Even into the wind the back nine fairly buzzed by.
All of which reflects the welcoming nature of a club that could not sit more at odds with the pomposity and pretension of so many of those that are lucky enough to have stewardship of some of our greatest courses.
“We usually have a few glasses afterwards,” Neil had warned me when inviting me to join them.
The horror on Alex’s face when my first post-round order was a re-hydrating ginger beer and lime will live long in the memory, but such abstemiousness lasted only one round in this convivial company.
If there are few better places in the world to let morning turn into afternoon than on the Royal Dornoch links, there can be even fewer better places to let afternoon turn into evening than over “lunch” with the locals.
Not as remote as it once was – George, the current club captain, recalls how, before the Dornoch Bridge was opened in 1991, most would make the trip to Inverness no more than twice a year – there remains that sense of other-worldliness.
Rejuvenated and revitalised, then, in a location that means it can add perhaps the only missing element to the delightfulness of Dornoch and the golf course that has now made it globally renowned, Links House is ready to start giving again.