It’s Christmas Day, The Golf Club Is Closed But You Still Had To Wait Ages To Tee-Up

I was looking at some of the latest golf-related stories the other day when I came across this article: ‘Should You Play Golf on Christmas Day?” It quickly took me back decades when my brother, Steve and I used to play golf on Christmas Day, and in those years when we were first getting into the deep end in playing golf. We grew-up in the lower North Shore region of Sydney.  Our father, Terry, was the first in the family to play golf.  He joined the 9-hole Castlecove Country Club course, ...

Sainte-Mère-Église – Visiting The First Town To Be Liberated On D-Day.

Sainte-Mere-Eglise is a lovely French village located around 12 kilometres straight inland from the famed D-Day beaches at Normandy. Some 80-years ago, Sainte-Mere-Eglise and its surroundings was a strategic area along the national road connecting Cherbourg to Paris, at a key road junction between five departmental roads. Early on the morning of June 6th, 1944 Saint-Mere-Eglise would become the first town in Europe to be liberated from more than four years of German occupation. Welcome to Saint-Mere-Eglise On ...

Arran – A First Visit To This Unique Scottish Isle.

A first visit to the isle of Arran. Yes, after many visits to Kintyre and the Outer Herbrides we are heading to Arran, an island off the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde and the seventh-largest Scottish island, at 432 square kilometres (167 sq mi) and located just 90-minutes by ferry from the mainland at Ardrossan to Brodick. Though culturally and physically similar to the Hebrides, it is separated from them by the Kintyre peninsula and where we were headed after ...

A Wee Dram At The ‘Am Politican’ On The Isle Of Eriskay

One of the most well known, and also somewhat amusing events in the recent history of the Western Isles was the wreck of the SS Politician on the 5th February 1941. It was the story used by Compton Mackenzie for his book Whisky Galore, and later for the Ealing Studio in turning the story in a hit-winning comedy by the same name. The SS Politician was an 8000-tonne cargo ship which had left Liverpool laden with amongst other things 260,000 bottles of whisky, bound for Kingston in Jamaica and New Orleans. ...

Corrie Golf Club & The Corrie Hotel On The Isle Of Arran

On a first visit to the isle of Arran we stopped for a short visit to the Corrie Golf Club in the village of Corrie. The golf club was founded in 1892 and in a par-31, nine-hole layout of just over 1,900 yards. Corrie is a wonderful little village, located some 6 miles (10 kilometres) north of Brodick and about the same distance from Lochranza in the south. The village used to be a regular stop for steamers circumnavigating the island of Arran. Our visit also involved a bit of circumnavigation of ...

Campbelltown – Scottish Pipe Bands & Great Kintyre Golf.

In between travelling for a first time to the island of Arran and making the journey to the Outer Hebrides we made a visit to Campbelltown. It’s a Scottish town down towards the Mull of Kintyre and where we have travelled before and on this latest occasion we stopped over in August 2022 Scottish golfing visit. Campbeltown is situated on the stunning peninsula of Kintyre, and the largest towns in Argyll.  It’s a long drive from the main highway leading from Glasgow to the A-83 turnoff ...

Barra Island Golf Club – A Second Visit Was Truly Double The Pleasure

It was 2012 when I first visited the remote Isle of Barra golf course in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to return to the islands in 2015, 2016, 2019 and last year in August 2022, and when making a third visit to Barra. Five visits .. Now is that not a strong recommendation? The Isle of Barra course lays claim to the most westerly golf course in the UK.  You can’t go any further west or you would arrive on the shores of Canada. The golf course is ...