Inverness / Highlands

The Highlands is blessed with 46 wonderful testing courses in some isolated places as well as within the main cities of Inverness and Fort William. There are a number of golf courses around the Aviemoreand Grantown-on-Spey area which you could be include while on your whisky trail of the Speyside area of Scotland.

Some of the world's greatest links courses reside in the north of Scotland. The names of the courses themselves (Royal Dornoch, Brora, Nairn and Tain to name a few) should be enough to make you pack your clubs and set off. The world famous Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle is also a favourite of many visitors, with the castle the setting for the high-profile wedding of Madonna and Guy Ritchie.

Many of the courses have been created by some of golf's most celebrated course architects, notably James Braid and Old Tom Morris. Certainly, a number of their courses have received makeovers or been lengthened due to the demands of the modern golfer, but the best of their work still exists today.

Inverness, the bustling, attractive capital of the Highlands and Scotland's millennium city, makes an ideal base for exploring the area. The city sits on the picturesque River Ness, which flows into the Moray Firth - probably the best place to see dolphins in Europe. To the east is the traditional seaside resort of Nairn with its golden sandy beaches and championship golf courses, and to the north the pretty Highland village of Beauly.

There is an impressive castle at Cawdor, while you can marvel at the Caledonian Canal at Fort Augustus. Explore the natural world in the ancient woodlands of Glen Affric and around the Great Glen - indeed, the scenery in the area is amazing. Loch Ness is probably the best-known Scottish loch, thanks to its famous resident - Nessie, the friendly Loch Ness monster. You can find out all about her in Drumnadrochit, and say hello if you see her from the ruins of picture-postcard Urquhart Castle.