Buckpool Golf Club

Buckpool was founded in 1933, which makes it young by Scottish standards, and it was built in part to create work at a time when the herring fishery had collapsed and unemployment on the Moray coast was high. J.H. Taylor, five times Open champion, designed it.

The course sits on the clifftop at the western end of Buckpool, above the North Sea. It plays to a par 70 over 6,127 yards.

What it asks of you

This is a raised links, which is a specific thing: links turf and links wind on ground that sits above the sea rather than beside it. There is no dune shelter. The breeze reaches every shot on the course.

Gorse lines the fairways and there are bunkers throughout, so the wind is not the only defence, but it is the one that decides the round. A par 70 of 6,127 yards is short on a still day and long on most others.

Taylor’s routing takes the clifftop for what it is and does not fight it. That was also a practical matter: this was relief work, and the budget did not run to moving much earth.

What players say about it

Buckpool takes visitors and appears in the Scottish course rankings. The points below summarise what recurs. These are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course, and we name and quote no one.

What comes up in its favor

• The views over the Moray Firth from the clifftop are named in almost every account.
• Value comes up constantly: links golf at a fraction of what the famous names charge.
• Having J.H. Taylor’s name on a course this accessible interests visitors who know the history.
• Conditioning is reported as better than the green fee suggests.
• It is quiet, and a round rarely has to be booked far ahead.

What comes up against

• Exposure is total, and a windy day makes it a different and much harder course.
• The gorse punishes a wayward drive absolutely.
• At 6,127 yards it will not stretch a long hitter in calm conditions.
• Buckie is remote, and the course is played on a Moray coast trip.

Getting there and when to go

The club is at Buckie on the Moray coast, about twenty minutes from Elgin and an hour from Inverness airport.

The links plays year-round. May to September gives the best conditions and the long northern evenings. Visitor tee times are booked in advance.

Green fees

Visitor rates are set by the club. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, the club’s published history and encyclopaedic entries for the 1933 founding, the employment context and the J.H. Taylor design, and public course records for par and yardage. The opinion section summarises public reviews read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we reproduce no quotations.

We have not played this course, and this page is no substitute for a round. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.