The Complete Guide to Royal Portrush

The short answer

Yes, visitors can play the Dunluce Links every day except Wednesday, in set windows around the members, and you pay the full green fee when you book. Build the trip from Portrush: Portstewart is 15 minutes away, the Valley Links is at the same club, and Royal County Down is 1 h 55 min south.

Founded

1888as the County Golf Club

The Open

1951 · 2019 · 2025

Visitors

Every day but Wednesdayin set windows

Fly into

Belfast International (BFS)1 h to Portrush

I've played the Dunluce about 30 times, including in the North of Ireland Amateur, and it's my favorite course in the world. This guide is for the trip captain planning a Royal Portrush golf trip around it. It covers the club's history in brief, the five holes worth knowing before you play, the order to book in, what to see on the Causeway Coast between rounds, where to stay, and a five-day route that adds Portstewart, Royal County Down and Ardglass.

Royal Portrush history

The club was founded in 1888 as the County Golf Club, and its first tournament was played on nine holes. Old Tom Morris played an exhibition match there in 1889 and gave advice on a new 18-hole layout. It became the Royal County Club in 1892 and took the name Royal Portrush Golf Club in 1895.

The Dunluce Links itself came later. On the advice of Sir Anthony Babington, the club hired Harry Colt in 1929, and his Dunluce Links opened in 1933. It takes its name from Dunluce Castle, the ruin on the cliffs east of the town.

The Open has been played on the Dunluce three times:

• 1951: the first Open held outside Great Britain. Max Faulkner won.
• 2019: the 148th Open. Shane Lowry won by six shots, on 269.
• 2025: the 153rd Open. Scottie Scheffler won by four shots, at 17 under par.

For 2019 the architect Martin Ebert led a redesign that started in 2015. It added five new greens and two new holes, today's 7th and 8th, on land that used to belong to the Valley Links.

Portrush's own players are part of the story. Fred Daly, a Portrush man, won the 1947 Open at Hoylake and became the first Irish golfer to win a major. In 2005 a 16-year-old Rory McIlroy set a course record of 61 in the North of Ireland Amateur, and I watched him do it. For a 2027 trip, the club's site mentions no championship that would keep visitors off the Dunluce.

The holes to know on the Dunluce Links

The club's course guide gives three yardages for each hole without naming the tees. The lengths below are the longest it lists.

4th, Fred Daly's

The 4th is named after the Portrush golfer who won the 1947 Open. Out of bounds runs down the right, and the green sits between dunes with a narrow entrance. The club lists the par as 4/5 and its own tip calls the hole a par 4½: drive right of the big bunker if you want a chance of getting there in two.

5th, White Rocks

A dogleg that runs slightly downhill to a green on the edge of the Atlantic, above the beach at White Rocks. The club's tip is a longish carry over the mounds to the right of the white stone, which leaves a much shorter approach.

7th, Curran Point

One of the two holes built for the 2019 Open, on ground that used to be part of the Valley Links. From the back it's 590 yards, and the club describes it as a real three-shotter. Drive left of the big bunker and you're in position.

15th, Skerries

A par 4 with the Skerries and the Atlantic behind the green. The club's line is up the right side of the fairway, which gives you the best view of the green, and it warns that the second shot needs your concentration.

16th, Calamity Corner

A 236-yard par 3 with no bunkers. The ground falls away into a chasm to the right of the green. The club's advice is to take plenty of club and aim for the back left.

Giant's Causeway, Bushmills and Dunluce Castle

All three are on the coast east of Portrush, so they fit around a round on the Dunluce or a free afternoon. Dunluce Castle is the closest. The Giant's Causeway and the distillery are by Bushmills village.

Giant's Causeway

The National Trust looks after Northern Ireland's first UNESCO World Heritage site: over 40,000 basalt columns, about 2 miles from Bushmills village. You can walk down to the stones without a ticket. The paid Visitor Experience covers the visitor center, guided tours and the main car park, and the Trust strongly recommends booking it ahead.

Old Bushmills Distillery

The distillery in Bushmills village dates itself to 1608 and calls itself the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery. It runs guided tours, booked through its own website.

Dunluce Castle

The ruin that gives the Dunluce Links its name stands on a basalt cliff between Portrush and Portballintrae. The MacQuillan family first built it around 1500, and the MacDonnells took it in the 1550s. The story goes that its kitchens fell into the sea one stormy night in 1639. Check opening times before you go: the Department for Communities, which lists it as a heritage site, sends visitors to Discover Northern Ireland for them.

Where to stay near Royal Portrush

Stay on the north coast if the Dunluce, the Valley and Portstewart are the point of the trip. Portstewart is 15 minutes from Portrush, so one base covers all three. Galgorm and Culloden make sense when the group also wants a resort course and spa, or a last night close to Belfast City Airport.

• Dunluce Lodge

  Portrush · 5-star, 35 suites, next to the 4th fairway

• Bushmills Inn

  Bushmills village · 4-star, 41 rooms, a coaching inn in the 1600s

• Galgorm Resort

  Ballymena · 40 min to Royal Portrush, its own parkland course

  View hotel →

• Culloden Estate & Spa

  Holywood · 10 min from Belfast City Airport, 1 h 20 min to Royal Portrush

  View hotel →

Make Royal Portrush Part of Your Trip

Choose when you want to travel, the courses you want to play and the style of trip that suits your group.

Plan My Royal Portrush Trip ↗

Where else to play near Royal Portrush

The Valley Links, Portstewart and Castlerock are all close enough for a three-night stay in Portrush. Royal County Down and Ardglass are in Co. Down, 1 h 55 min south, and need nights of their own. There are shorter plans for each end of the trip in the North Antrim coast golf guide and the Co. Down golf guide. golftripbuilder.com has a page for each course linked below, with its visitor days and booking rules.

• Royal Portrush, Valley Links

  Same club

  The club's second links, through the War Hollow below the Dunluce. Visitors play weekdays 08:00–08:50 and after 11:00, and Sunday after 14:00, but not on Saturday.

• 

  Portstewart

  15 min

  The Strand course takes visitors every day around members' times. At weekends visitors start in the afternoon, and a cancellation inside 30 days gets no refund.

  View Portstewart →

• Castlerock Golf Club

  Across the River Bann from Portstewart: the 18-hole Mussenden course and the nine-hole Bann course beside the estuary. Visitor tee times are booked on the club's website.

• 

  Royal County Down

  1 h 55 min

  Visitors on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, from mid-April to mid-October. The club calls its visitor times exceptionally limited, and every group takes at least one caddie.

  View Royal County Down →
• 

  Ardglass

  1 h 55 min

  A cliff-top links 30 minutes from Royal County Down. Visitors play any day and book online, but weekend mornings belong to the members.

  View Ardglass →

Your Royal Portrush Golf Trip Starts Here

Play Royal Portrush, Royal County Down and some of Northern Ireland's finest links. Here's a sample five-day itinerary. Make it your own in minutes.

This route plays four links in five days, and the order follows each club's visitor rules. Royal Portrush has no visitors on Wednesday, so Wednesday is the Portstewart day, before the drive south. Royal County Down takes visitors on Thursday, and Ardglass has no members-only mornings on a Friday. Book Royal Portrush and Royal County Down first, since both are paid in full when you book.

Every drive time below comes from the road-routing table golftripbuilder.com uses on its course pages. They're measured without traffic, so allow longer in summer.