The North Wales Way: A Golfing Grand Tour
Starting at the Wales/England border and running westwards for 75 miles/120km to the tip of Anglesey, The North Wales Way is one of three Wales Way touring routes created to guide and inspire visitors. Each ‘Way’ has been designed as a fluid experience, not a route that’s set in stone, with plenty of diversions off the main path that allow you to explore further and deeper.
This four-day itinerary takes you to great golf clubs along The North Wales Way. You probably won’t have time to play them all, but you can use our route to pick out the courses that best suit your style and skill level.
Unless otherwise stated, the featured golf courses are 18 hole.
For details on golf passes which allow you to play multiple courses at a discounted price go to www.golfnorthwales.co.uk
Day 1
Starting near Wrexham and the Wales/England border you’ll find nine-hole Plassey, a pretty parkland course with rolling fairways bounded by ponds, streams and mature oak trees. Moving on, Mold Golf Club offers an engrossing 18 holes with excellent greens and stunning views of the Clwydian Range, while Rhuddlan Golf Club’s gently undulating parkland is a regular venue for County and National Championship events.
Suggested overnight: Rhuddlan or St Asaph.
Day 2
Abergele is your first port of call, a picturesque parkland course with spectacular sea views and wide fairways liberally sprinkled with bunkers and water hazards.
Starting in 1869 as a few holes cut into the turf, Conwy Golf Club has become one of the most celebrated and challenging links courses in the UK (and a popular venue for competitions like the Wales Senior Open and the Curtis Cup).
Sandwiched between mountain and sea, nine-hole Penmaenmawr is on a smaller scale, but still packs in plenty of challenge, with fairways bisected by dry stone walls lying in wait for errant shots.
Suggested overnight: Bangor.
Day 3
Start off in Bangor at St Deiniol, a parkland course with far-reaching views of sea and mountain. Then it’s over to the Isle of Anglesey for the tree-lined parkland Henllys Golf Club near Beaumaris, which boasts match-winning vistas of the Menai Strait and Snowdonia along with lush fairways and exacting natural water hazards.
Next it’s nine-hole Storws Wen near Benllech (known for its high-quality greens and testing holes) before a round at Bull Bay Golf Club, the most northerly course in Wales. It makes excellent use of its naturally rolling terrain, tasking players with navigating rocky outcrops and dense thickets of gorse while dealing with the stiff breezes blowing in off the Irish Sea.
Suggested overnight: Bull Bay, Cemaes Bay or Amlwch.
Day 4
Back on the mainland, tackle Royal Town of Caernarfon Golf Club, a challenging parkland course with smooth-running greens and lush fairways (plus a fine mountain backdrop).
We’ve kept possibly the most awesome until last. Nefyn and District is amongst Wales’s – and the UK’s – most iconic golf courses. Fearsome, but hugely rewarding, it spears out from a little peninsula into the sea and has been likened to playing on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Fearsome, but hugely rewarding, it spears out from a little peninsula into the sea and has been likened to playing on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Suggested overnight: Nefyn or Pwllheli.
More itineraries are also available under the headings of adventure, walking, heritage, landscape, food and drink, castles and historic places, a Welsh journey, town and villages and a long weekend in North Wales.