Vacations | Accommodation | Courses

The Western Links

8 days / 7 nights / 6 rounds of golf

Day 1:

Depart from the USA for Ireland; all flights are overnight. Allow for the 5 hour time difference from EST. Enjoy dinner and the movie on board.

Day 2:

You will be met on arrival at Shannon airport in the early morning by an AtlanticGolf representative who is there to welcome you to Ireland and assist you in any way necessary. Pick up your rental vehicle or meet your driver and transfer to Sligo This is a 3 hour trip.

Check into the Clarion Hotel for 3 nights.

This is an area whose images and mythology inspired Ireland’s most famous poet, William Butler Yeats, for whom this was the “Land of Heart’s Desire”. Yeats is buried at Drumcliff cemetery at the foot of Benbulbin mountain.

Day 3:

Breakfast at the hotel, then drive 30 minutes north to Murvagh to play the longest links course in the country.

Golf at Donegal

Caddies & carts available

This is the home of Donegal tweed and knitwear, so check out the local stores for that souvenir Irish cap.

Day 4:

Another course with a dual name: properly, Co Sligo Golf Club, located at Rosses Point and known colloquially as Rosses Point.

Golf at Rosses Point

Caddies & carts available

On the northern shore of Drumcliff Bay is a Grecian Revival mansion, Lissadel, built in 1832 for the Gore-Booth family and immortalized by Yeats - worth some time.

Day 5:

After breakfast, its off westwards to Enniscrone on Killala Bay. This is the start of the “real” west of Ireland; the topography is different, the population sparse and the people very welcoming and friendly.

Golf at Enniscrone

Caddies & carts available

Following golf you should visit the Ceide Fields nearby. Buried and preser4ved under 6 feet of blanket bog are the remains of a New stone Age community which lived here before 3000 BC. On then to Westport, one of the prettiest towns in the country.

Check into the Clew Bay Hotel for 4 nights

Day 6:

Belmullet is as far west as you can go in Ireland. It is one of the least inhabited and most desolate stretches of landscape in Ireland. Blanket bog as far as the eye can see, but is has a world class links.

Golf at Carne

Carts available

Stop a while in the town before you head back to Westport where there is a wide range of good restaurants and plenty of pubs with live Irish music most nights.

Day 7:

Westport was laid out as an adjunct to the Marquess of Sligo’s Westport House in the late 18th c and its legacy of town planning can be seen in the comfortably spacious streets. The local golf course was built on that estate.

Golf at Westport

Another night on the town

Day 8:

The drive from Westport to Connemara GC is wonderful. Through Leenane and Clifden out to Ballyconneely – you rally can’t go any further west.

Golf at Connemara

After golf, drive to Bunratty village, near Shannon airport. The drive should take about 3 hours but check on local, traffic. There is a famous olf pub here, Durty Nellies for that last pint in Ireland. Overnight at the Bunratty Castle Hotel.

Day 9:

Alas the trip is over, we hope you enjoyed it. Remember, Shannon has a fine Duty Free shop, so get to the airport with some time to spare.