Roxburghe Golf Club

The Roxburghe Golf Club is about 1 1/2 hours south of Edinburgh using the A68, and is part of the Roxburghe estate and hotel here, although you needn't stay there to play the golf club. It's one of the better "inland" courses in Scotland, we hesitated to play it outside of our "links" course itinerary, but glad we did. From the whites, the course plays to 6,925 yards, par 72, SSS-74, Dave Thomas designed course which opened in the late 1990's. It's a challenging parkland style layout with a good amount of bunkering, many deep and penal, but relatively wide open off the tee. Elevated tees on a number of holes, and nice movement in the land. The best hole on the course we thought was the "Viaduct", a par five. You tee off above the River Teviot, with a steep hill on the left side of the fairway, and an old railway viaduct in the background, very scenic, and challenging. The par 3's were all fairly long, two with water in play. Beautiful setting in the Borders, hotel, grounds, and golf courses were immaculate. The estate is owned by the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe, the Duke being a golfer, had the course built on the grounds, and opened it up to the public. Unfortunately we walked the course, which was a mistake, long distances between greens and tees, and hilly, otherwise an excellent experience.