Established: 1887
Architects: Archie Simpson, Old Tom Morris, James Braid

Stretching along the southern shore of the Moray Firth with the Black Isle rising across the water, Nairn is Scotland's premier Highland championship links and one of its most underrated. The opening holes hug the beach before the course turns inland through dense gorse and heather, rewarding precision over power. James Braid's early 20th-century refinements gave the layout its enduring structure, and the club announced its international arrival by hosting the Walker Cup in 1999.

Established: 2009
Architects: Gil Hanse, Mark Parsinen
World Top 100 (2025-26: GOLF.com): #76

Gil Hanse and developer Mark Parsinen transformed a bracken-covered hillside above the Moray Firth into one of Scotland's most celebrated modern links, with infinity-edge greens, rumpled fairways, natural bunkers, and spectacular open views creating an experience that feels genuinely of the place. The course hosted the Scottish Open four times between 2011 and 2016, attracting the world's best players to the Highlands. Acquired by The Cabot Collection in 2022 and rebranded as Cabot Highlands, it now anchors an emerging 36-hole destination alongside the new Tom Doak-designed Old Petty.

Established: 2026
Architects: Tom Doak, Clyde Johnson

Tom Doak created Old Petty on former farmland, routing golfers to flirt with a 400-year-old castle and the 1839 Old Petty Church, mingle with a tidal estuary, and rise and fall across an expansive, rumpled hillside where holes feel found rather than formed. The castle is visible from 13 of the 18 holes, and the course opens with a bold flourish: criss-crossing fairways on the opening and closing holes give a uniquely dramatic start and end to a round. Doak's second design on Irish and Scottish soil after St. Patrick's Links at Rosapenna, Old Petty completed preview play in 2025 before its grand opening in Spring 2026.

Established: 1877
Architects: Old Tom Morris, John Sutherland, Donald Ross
World Top 100 (2025-26: GOLF.com): #7

Golf has been played on Dornoch's common land since 1616, making it one of the oldest courses in the world, and the Championship Course remains the most remote links in any serious conversation for the title of the world's best. Old Tom Morris laid out the original holes in 1877, and club secretary John Sutherland spent decades refining the layout before Donald Ross — who learned the game here — carried its design philosophy to America, where it shaped courses including Pinehurst No. 2. Tom Watson called it his favorite course in the world. The elevated plateau greens and subtle, relentless ground movement reward only the most thoughtful golf.

Established: 1832
Architects: David Strath, Ben Sayers
World Top 100 (2025-26: GOLF.com): #25

One of the oldest and most joyfully eccentric courses in the world, North Berwick's West Links is a living museum of natural links golf where stone dykes cross fairways, blind shots abound, and the sea is never out of sight. The par-3 15th, "Redan," is golf's most imitated hole — its angled, fall-away green protected by a single front-left bunker spawned countless copies from Long Island to Los Angeles. Generations of architects made pilgrimage here, and the course's ancient quirkiness has never been softened or straightened away, leaving it as irreplaceable as it is beloved.