Cruden Bay Golf Club

Cruden Bay Golf Club was established in 1899 on a spectacular stretch of duneland beside Cruden Bay, north of Aberdeen. The course was originally laid out by Old Tom Morris and later revised by Tom Simpson, and it occupies a landscape of extraordinary natural drama — massive dune formations, a sweeping bay, and the ruins of Slains Castle visible on the clifftop beyond the course.

Cruden Bay is one of the most distinctive and characterful links courses in Scotland. The routing moves through immense dune formations, across natural valleys, and along the shoreline, with blind shots, quirky angles, and natural features that give the course a personality entirely its own. It is a course that serious golfers seek out and invariably fall in love with — a place of genuine wildness and beauty that feels entirely removed from the modern world.

Cruden Bay is not a course of conventional championship scale, but it is a course of exceptional quality and genuine character. It has been ranked among the top courses in Scotland by every major golf publication, and it is consistently cited by those who have played it as one of the most memorable rounds of their lives. The remoteness, the dune scale, and the wild coastal setting make it unlike anywhere else in Scottish golf.