Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club

Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club, which opened in 2009, is the first golf course to be built on a Site of Special Scientific Interest since the days of Scottish golfing pioneer Tom Morris. The golf course is also the first 18-hole links course to be built on the west coast of Scotland in 100 years

Machrihanish Dunes' site, set against the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, featured 23 "natural holes,” and golf course architect and Scotsman David McLay Kidd, who is internationally acclaimed for his design of Bandon Dunes in Oregon and the Castle Course at St. Andrews, chose his 18 favorites. Basically, only the tees and greens were shaped. The fairways in between and almost all of the rest of the site remain just as nature made them.