The Castle Stuart Course at Cabot Highlands was part of a trend of new links courses in Scotland when it first opened and has now made the jump into the top ten on the updated NCG Top 100s: Scotland list.
It is one of the newest courses on the list, having only opened in 2009, and yet it is now the older of two courses at Cabot Highlands, following the rebrand of the venue in 2022.
The Castle Stuart Course played host to the Scottish Open on the DP World Tour on four occasions in the 2010s, with Luke Donald and Phil Mickelson among the winners.
RELATED – Check out the NCG Top 100s: Scotland list
Why has the Castle Stuart Course at Cabot Highlands broken into the top 10 on our updated NCG Top 100s: Scotland list?
A course doesn’t play host to the DP World Tour within just two years of it opening if it simply isn’t good enough. That is what the Castle Stuart Course achieved as it hosted the Scottish Open for the first time in 2011.
This showed that it was a course that could test the best professionals in the game, with a World No.1 and a six-time major champion being two of the winners of the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart.
However, as a modern style of links, Castle Stuart is also a venue that can be enjoyed by the amateur golfer as well. The wide fairways and glorious views just add to the experience, while also giving amateurs the chance to score well.
It is now also part of a 36-hole portfolio at Cabot Highlands. In the spring of 2026, the venue opened the Old Petty Course to great acclaim – a new Tom Doak design.
RELATED – NCG Top 100s: Cabot Highlands (Castle Stuart)
What do our experts think about the Castle Stuart Course at Cabot Highlands?
Dan Murphy, chairman of the NCG Top 100s Rankings, believes that the joy of the Castle Stuart Course comes from its level of enjoyment.
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“It is one of the poster boys for this style of golf course. This is a golf course where you have a great time. It is very much one of the first golf courses to embrace the idea of wide landing areas and lots of fun and intricacies round the green. The idea being that you can get all the way down the hole every time you play it,” Murphy said on the NCG Top 100s Podcast.
“It is spectacular and terraced. It banks down towards the Moray Firth, so you can see the sea from, if not every hole, then as good as. It is scoreable, and just a place where you’re happy to be.”
Tom Irwin, co-host of the NCG Golf Podcast and the NCG Top 100s Podcast, was in agreement, comparing the layout to one of America’s finest.
“You’re absolutely right to use the words ‘poster boy’ because in this country, it is the poster boy. It is in among loads of traditional Scottish golf, it is right next to Inverness Airport. You might say that it is in the Highlands, so it is remote, but it is an absolute doddle to get to for people with connecting flights – it could not be closer to Inverness Airport,” Irwin explained about the possible travel dilemmas.
“There are elements of the course at Castle Stuart that reflect the Gil Hanse layout at Streamsong Black, in Florida. I was there in spring and drove the ball like an absolute idiot but I was still finding the periphery of the fairway or short grass. I hit a couple of shots off the beach, that said.
“I have gone full circle with it, because if you are going there to be a curmudgeon then you would say that the golf course isn’t firm enough to show any teeth and it is too wide, not testing enough. However, it is such an amazing setting.
“The way that they have used the land to afford views over the Moray Firth the whole way around, is amazing. There are unbelievable infinity greens on the holes that are most inland, so you still get a peak of the water from most holes. The greens are huge and funky, and angles do matter. It is an amazing setting, so it really struggles to lose points.”
The Castle Stuart Course is one of several 21st-century designs that have now broken into the top 10 on the NCG Top 100s: Scotland list.
Could this be a trend for more new golf course to climb the rankings in the future?
“It is one of arguably four new or new-ish courses in our top 10. When you think of it, it blows your mind that almost half of the Scotland top 10, are courses that are young. You would think, what an achievement to build a golf course in Scotland of all places, and be able to get that high up the list,” Murphy explained.
“It is one of those courses where it is some people’s favourite. Equally, there are people listening that may have never been but would say that we are getting carried away and it can’t be that good. Well, we have done several of these lists and it keeps punching itself into this part of the list.”
“I think the other thing that you have to bear in mind with Castle Stuart, and Trump International, ” Irwin added, “Is that you and I, and other people that are on the panel, have been to places that are like that a lot. I mean, if you go to St Patrick’s Links is the same.”
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“The scale of these places and the vistas are incredible. It is weird being at Streamsong because you spend the whole two or three days on the same property and it all looks the same, and you start to take it for granted. When you first get there, there are huge skies, massive waste areas, ridiculous dunes, and Castle Stuart is like that.
“If you’ve been there several times, then you sort of go ‘Yeah I get it…’, but you have to constantly remind yourself that for someone who is going there as the centre point of a trip, it is mind-blowing.”
Listen to the NCG Top 100s Podcast
CHECK OUT – NCG Top 100s: Cabot Highlands (Old Petty)
CHECK OUT – The story behind Old Petty at Cabot Highlands
Now have your say
Have you been fortunate enough to play the Castle Stuart Course at Cabot Highlands? What did you make of it? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!
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