NCG Top 100s: GB&I Resorts – Meldrum House

Meldrum House is a charming and historic boutique resort, around a half-hour drive inland from Aberdeen. 

The golf course, designed by the locally based architect Graeme Webster,  features some intriguing green shapes and contours and is a very well-presented parkland layout with several water features and risk-and-reward holes. 

With around 50 rooms, in a variety of styles ranging from the traditional in the Manor House to the contemporary in the Estate Rooms, Meldrum House offers both the intimacy of a small hotel and the grandeur of a bigger one. 

Food is a notable speciality – and best enjoyed from the inside of one of the greenhouse-style domes set on Meldrum’s main lawn. 

It can be difficult to categorise Meldrum House, which is simultaneously too expansive to be regarded as a small hotel but sufficiently intimate to mean it cannot really be thought of in the resort category. 

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We approached after a fun but wearying day on the links at Royal Aberdeen and Meldrum House’s refined and subtle charms were just what these two hungry, thirsty and ever-so-slightly-aching golfers needed.  

The accommodation here ranges from the baronial to the thoroughly modern. My room – suite would be more accurate – was in the latter category. With much more glass than wall, I was able to take in sweeping views of the golf course while enjoying a complimentary dram of whisky. 

Pre-dinner drinks are taken in the Cave Bar, which is every bit the haven its title suggests. Indeed, we were reluctant to move away from our cosy table in a turret on what was a bright but chilly evening to head outside. 

This may sound like madness, but we were exposed to the elements for a matter of seconds before reaching the sanctuary of our dome – basically a greenhouse – which have become Meldrum House’s trademark and a real talking point.

Surrounded by the delightful Meldrum House estate grounds, each dome has a dining table and is equipped with a mini speaker so you can choose your musical accompaniment. The service is exceptionally attentive and bettered only by the food. 

Typical starters include pork belly from Grantown on Spey served with langoustine, fennel and kimchi, and Squash from Montrose glazed with jam, pumpkin seed pesto and a goat’s cheese espuma. 

For mains, how about Peterhead Turbot, with a lobster bisque, goujon, Isle of Mull cheddar and spinach. Or for meat-lovers, local butcher of choice G McWilliam, Aberdeen offers sensational steaks, served with caramelised onion puree, wild mushroom arancini and hand-cut chips. 

After dinner, it seemed only polite to retire to the Cave Bar for a nightcap, in preparation for our round the following day. 

Meldrum House may be thought of as a course of two halves, with the front nine on flatter land and featuring more twists and turns, as well as an abundance of water hazards. That much is apparent from the very first hole, where it feels like an achievement of sorts just to finish with the same ball you started with. Play it sensibly, though, and an early birdie is not out of the question. If not here, then at the short par-4 2nd. 

There are further opportunities to pick up a shot or two throughout the front nine but there are more holes where most of us would be delighted to escape with a par or bogey. You always have an option off the tee and this always impacts on the difficulty levels of the approach. 

The back nine is a little hillier and perhaps a little less unpredictable. That said, Meldrum House really does finish with a flourish in the form of a very distinctive closing stretch. 

That begins with the 16th, a downhill par 5 where the approach is played over water to an attractively situated green. The next is a risk-and-reward par 4 that really will tempt the big hitter to take on the nest of bunkers on the angle of the dogleg to find the green beyond.

Then, the last is a slightly claustrophobic par 3 that is modest in length but all too easy to fall foul of. It’s charming, relaxing and entertaining golf that is entirely in keeping with the surroundings. 

After enjoying the slightly less formal but highly impressive cuisine in the Cave Bar that evening, we certainly slept well. 

Suitably replenished and rejuvenated by our foray inland, we were very much ready to return to the linksland, albeit sorry to leave the quite charming surrounds of Meldrum House. 

Club Class Golf Offer

Fancy a stay and play at Meldrum House this year?

Club Class Golf can offer a one night stay in a Stables Room, with dinner, bed and breakfast and unlimited golf during your stay, based on two sharing a room (upgrades are available)!

The offer is valid 7 days a week until October 31st, 2025. Check that offer out here. 

NCG Top 100s Rankings

Meldrum House is sits comfortably inside the top 50 on the NCG Top 100s: GB&I Golf Resorts list. It is one of three glorious golfing venues on the list that is north of Dundee, with the Macdonald Aviemore Resort and the nearby Trump International, Scotland also inside the top 50 on our list.

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Now have your say on Meldrum House

Have you ever been fortunate enough to play or stay at Meldrum House before? Will it be on your list now for a trip to the north of Scotland? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!