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Cumbria

At last, Silloth on Solway Golf Club’s reputation is becoming recognised more widely, thoroughly deserving its position in the Top 100 and one of England's best links courses.

Founded in 1892, with the help of Railway Company money, the course was originally designed by North Berwick professional David Grant. Willie Park Junior subsequently carried out some modifications to the layout between 1898 and 1902, primarily to remove a few blind shots and introduce new holes at the 4th and 5th. Alister MacKenzie submitted plans in 1915 to make further changes, but financial constraints after the Great War meant the club could only afford to proceed with installing a new green on the 3rd and a new tee on the 4th.

Silloth is famous for its affiliation with ladies' golf. The famous Leitch sisters learnt to play on the Silloth links. Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch (or Cecil as she became known), went on to be the best lady golfer in the world, winning a record four British, five French, two English and one Canadian titles. In 1910, Cecil played a match against Harold Hilton (one of the greatest male golfers of the time) over 72 holes, 36 at Walton Heath and 36 at Sunningdale. Sportingly, Hilton gave Cecil nine shots per 18 holes and found himself five holes up in the last round, with only the last 15 holes to play. Cecil, showing true grit, fought her way back and ended up winning on the 71st green 2 up and 1 to play.

Silloth has parliamentary connections too. Viscount Willie Whitelaw was the President of Silloth on Solway Golf Club until his death in 1999.

You have to make an extra special effort to get to Silloth because it is located in one of the most remote and isolated places in England, at the mouth of the Solway Firth. When you get to Silloth, it’s a surprise to see the nearby industry that slightly blots an otherwise perfect landscape.

With heather and gorse adding brilliant splashes of seasonal colour, this is a cracking links golf course. When the wind blows, it’s unlikely that you will play to your handicap. Even on a calm day, you’ll find it tough. "It is also the home of the winds," wrote Darwin, "when I was there the wind did not blow really hard, but hard enough to make a fool of me." Finding the tight greens is no mean feat and when you do, they are tough to read with their subtle borrows.

It’s well worth the time (and the money) to get to Silloth and once you get there, you won’t want to leave. You are at one of the best value golf courses in the whole of the British Isles.

Silloth on Solway

It’s well worth the time (and the money) to get to Silloth on Solway Golf Club and once you get here, you won’t want to leave...

Seascale Golf Club, five miles south of Whitehaven, fits neatly into a small area, overlooked by the Sellafield Power Station, but providing views of the Isle of Man and the Lakeland Hills in keeping with the popular perception of the beautiful county that is Cumbria on the North West Coast of England, Wordsworth Country.

Founded in 1893, the course covers less than a hundred acres without giving the impression of one hole encroaching on another. The links are the design of Willie Campbell and George Lowe.

Whilst not long by modern standards, Seascale encompasses a varied terrain at different levels without testing the golfer's fitness. It rises on the 1st and continues down the inland side of the course.

The 3rd provides the first panoramic view from a high tee, as the course continues northwards until the par five 7th turns in the opposite direction. The 8th is a long par three followed by the 9th, the only hole played directly towards the sea. Driving from a high tee, the line is straight at the Isle of Man.

The more memorable holes are on the back nine, starting with the short par three 10th, where a stream provides a hazard, as it does again on the 13th. In between are two par fours, one measuring 468 yards then a shorter two-shotter in the opposite direction.

However, the real test is to come. The par four 16th measures 471 yards with more defences that its mere length. The 17th tee overlooks the beach and the drive over a high hill requires accuracy for an ideal position for a long second shot into the green.

The 18th is ten yards shorter than the penultimate hole at 334 yards and the main challenge here is the enormous, L-shaped home green, where several pin positions can give the golfer one final problem – how do I get from the front round a corner to the hole?

The lasting impression is of having played eighteen holes of interest and variety – a very good partner to Silloth, further north up the Cumbrian Coast.

Seascale

Seascale Golf Club fits neatly into a small area, overlooked by the Sellafield Power Station, but providing views of the Isle of Man and the Lakeland Hills...

Carlisle Golf Club was founded in 1908, though there are apparently records of golf having been played in the city thirty-two years before then. The club acquired its present site at Aglionby in 1936 and commissioned Charles Mackenzie, Alister MacKenzie's brother, to set out their new eighteen holes. Shortly after, this layout was modified by Theodore Moone, before Philip Mackenzie Ross then remodelled the course in 1944.

: "In 1938 the move to its present site was made. Designed by Theodore Moone, a well-known writer and golf architect and minor amendments in 1973 by Frank Pennink."

Measuring a modest overall length of 6,273 yards, this mature parkland layout is set out on gently undulating terrain, close to where the A69 joins the M6. Only three of the eleven par fours on the card play in excess of 400 yards from the back tees with the 289-yard 5th hole probably rated the best two-shot hole on the property. You’ll also find a fine set of par threes here at holes 2, 4, 13 and 17.

The club was honoured to have the R&A designate the course at an Open Regional Qualifying venue in recent years, beginning in 1996. The English Golf Union also thought highly enough of the course in 2010 when the club was asked to host the English Seniors Championship.

Jonathan Davison completed a bunker restoration project at the club in 2021, filling in sand hazards which were added over the years and restoring a more Mackenzie Ross style to those remaining.

Carlisle

The mature parkland course at Carlisle Golf Club, which was founded in 1908, is attractively flanked by beech and pine and intersected by streams.

Situated above the picturesque Lake District town of Penrith, this wonderful old moorland layout dates back to 1890 when members of Penrith Golf Club set out the original nine holes around an oval racecourse. Traces of the old race track can still be made out on several of the fairways during the modern day back nine.

The course was doubled in size to an 18-hole layout in 1913 but, with World War I intervening soon after, many of the fairways were ploughed up for crop production. Indeed, it would take almost a decade before golf resumed on the course. Further improvements were made to the layout when the clubhouse was modernised in the 1970s.

Today’s course extends to just over 6,000 yards and this shortage of overall length is thanks mainly to a configuration containing five par threes – two of which play back to back at holes 9 and 10 – and only two par fives. The signature hole is the 365-yard left doglegged 12th, where the approach is played uphill to a green flanked by sand on either side.

Penrith

Situated above the picturesque Lake District town of Penrith, this wonderful moorland layout dates back to 1890 when Penrith Golf Club set out the original nine holes around an oval racecourse.

Willie Fernie set out the course at Appleby Golf Club on Brackenber Moor in 1903, twenty years after the club was founded.

Soon after opening, the new layout was described by the 

 as “a champion’s course” and “The Sunningdale of the North”.

Even though Appleby is easily accessible from the main A66 road (which traverses the Pennines) the course is set remotely on glorious expansive moorland from where there are panoramic views of the Lakeland Fells.

You can be at one with your inner Heathcliff here, especially if you can negotiate in regulation no fewer than eight par fours that stretch out beyond 400 yards.

If you’re visiting Appleby in early June, you simply have to check out the world-famous Appleby Horse Fair which is a colourful annual gathering of Gypsies and Travellers.


Appleby

The course at Brampton Golf Club was designed by James Braid and opened for play in 1909. Braid had an excellent undulating piece of land to play with and he laid the course out in his usual fastidious way. Perched some 1,000 feet above sea level, you are presented with stunning panoramic views of the mountains of the Lake District National Park.

Brampton was once described as the “Jewel of Cumbria” and likened by some to Gleneagles. It certainly is a likeable golf course with a moorland feel, but it isn’t quite in the same class as Gleneagles.


The course isn’t long at a tad over 6,400 yards, but it plays its length because the ground tends to get damp. After all, we are in the Lake District. We especially like the short par four 8th, with its elevated tee. It tempts the big hitters to have a crack at the green.

Cumbria isn’t golf course Mecca, but Brampton should be played alongside the mighty Silloth on Solway and the lesser-known links at Seascale. The Lake District is one of the most beautiful places on earth and we thoroughly recommend a stay in the area. If you do stay in the heart of the Lake District, take the opportunity to play Windermere Golf Club, the real “Petite Gleneagles”.

Brampton

Brampton Golf Club was once described as the "Jewel of Cumbria" and likened by some to Gleneagles.

Ulverston lies on the Furness peninsula, to the south of the Lake District National Park, where Ulverston Golf Club was founded in 1895. Fifteen years later, the club moved to the village of Bardsea, overlooking Morecambe Bay, where Sandy Herd set out a new course that was formally opened with a match between Herd and J.H. Taylor on 6th May 1910.

After the Great War, Harry Colt (assisted by Jack Setterfield and George Edwards from Newcastle) remodelled the layout for a fee of 17 guineas. The reconstruction was carried out by Frank Harris Bros. Limited for a cost of £502 6s between March and August 1923, with a small amount of additional work done the following spring at a cost of £130. The course was brought into play on 24th May 1924.

In June 1925, the golf correspondent for the 

 reported: “Laid out in an old deer park, it is a parkland course of the very best type. The layout of the course is almost ideal from a golfer’s point of view, while the surroundings are delightful. A splendid feature is the turf; it is like walking on a super pile carpet and it is never wet.

The greens are well-nigh perfect, not fast but perfectly true. The course is admirably kept, so that there should be very little ball searching, even in the summer. The bunkering has been admirably designed and, though not severe, calls for very accurate golf indeed at many of the holes if the good player desires the figures he thinks should be his.”

Today, the layout extends to 6,264 yards from the back tees, with par set at 71; 35 out and 36 in. Highlight holes include the only par five on the front nine at the 505-yard 4th (“Mountbarrow”) with out of bounds running along the right side of the hole, and the 161-yard 8th (“Sandy Herd”) where the green is surrounded by five menacing bunkers.

On the inward half, the last and longest of the par three holes plays into the southwest corner of the property at the 188-yard 14th (“White Ghyll”) then a run of four par fours concludes the round, ending with the 432-yard 18th (“Conishead”) which sets off from close to the highest point on the course and ends at the severely sloping home green next to the clubhouse.

Ulverston

Fifteen years after it was founded, Ulverston Golf Club moved near to the little village of Bardsea in 1910 so golfers have now been playing on the same wooded parkland site for over a century.

Windermere Golf Club is spectacularly situated on high ground in the heart of the Lake District – England’s largest National Park and World Heritage site.

“Whoever first coined that atrocious phrase, ‘Golf is a good walk spoiled’ was more than likely an idiot.” Wrote Nick Edmond in 

. “One thing’s for sure, he (or she) had never visited Windermere Golf Club in the Lake District. Golf not only takes us to such beautiful places, as Henry Longhurst used to say, but it regularly guides us to some beautiful vantage points. Had our idiot stood on the 8th tee at Windermere he would assuredly be forced to revise the ill-informed comment. Golf, if nothing else, is a good walk with a good incentive. (Better not tell that idiot then that the 8th at Windermere is called ‘Desolation’!)

Windermere Golf Club celebrated its centenary in 1991, Cleabarrow Fells, the land on which the course is laid out was originally leased from the Rector of Windermere before being purchase outright by the club in 1912. The 200 acres comprised, in addition to classically undulating Lakeland terrain, a serious amount of heather, bracken and rocks. However, it was soon converted into a sporting 9-hole course [by George Lowe the professional at and the designer of 

] and so well was this received that a further 9 holes were added before the end of 1892.

The Club’s centenary booklet reveals a colourful history. In the 1920s, the course measured 4,320 yards but had a par of 72 (today it is 5,122 yards, par 67.) Holes had interesting pars in those days and our friend ‘Desolation’ though a similar length as now at 143 yards, was a par three and a half!”

Windermere

Windermere Golf Club is spectacularly situated on high ground in the heart of the Lake District – England's largest National Park and World Heritage site.

Kirkby Lonsdale Golf Club is situated in the Lune Valley, between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It’s a beautiful spot for a golf course and the fairways are set out across 160 acres of rolling countryside, configured as two returning circuits of nine, with a winding watercourse cleverly brought into play on several occasions.

Founded in 1906, the club established a 9-hole course on either side of Biggins Wood, below Woodend Farm. When the lease for this property was terminated in 1938, the club moved to a new site, on a stretch of land between Holme House Farm and Kiln Bank, where another 9-hole course was put in place.

The laying of water pipes and the construction of an aqueduct across part of the course in the early 1950s precipitated the club’s relocation to Casterton, where nine holes were somehow squeezed into a compact 30-acre site. As the 1990s approached, it was decided to make one final move, one that would allow members to play on a full 18-hole layout.

After finding a suitable site at Barbon, the new course debuted in 1991, thanks to the efforts of a small group of club stalwarts and a JCB digger that had seen better days. The course was rudimentary, featuring flat, un-bunkered greens and members were soon appealing for a professional architect to be appointed to upgrade the layout.

Bill Squires, who had worked with Dave Thomas, was brought in to revamp the course and the layout in play today is the one that he fashioned. Over a three-year period, almost half the greens were replaced and, in the end, only the original putting surfaces on the 7th and 14th holes were not rebuilt or modified.

Feature holes on the front nine include the 390-yard 2nd, a tough left to right doglegged par four that gently rises to an offset green, and the 507-yard 8th, which bends first to the right and then to the left from tee to green – it’s a par five with a stroke index of 1 from the red markers so it certainly demands respect, even from the regular tees.

The inward half begins with another terrific hole, the 530-yard 10th. It’s a strong par five where tee shots are played from an elevated position across a pond to a fairway that veers sharply to the right. Barbon Beck cuts in along the left side of the hole towards the green so precision shots are called for here if a par of better is to be marked on the card.

After reaching the highest point of the course on the 15th green, with its stunning views of Howgill Fells, it’s time to tackle the last three holes on the home stretch, highlighted by the wonderful 157-yard 17th, a slightly downhill par three that plays to a sand-protected green perched on the other side of the flowing waters of Barbon Beck.

Kirkby Lonsdale

Originally formed in 1906, Kirkby Lonsdale Golf Club left its old 9-hole course behind when it moved to its present 18-hole location in 1991.

Workington Golf Club lies just outside the small town of Workington on the Cumbrian coast, about halfway between Maryport and Whitehaven. Formed as West Cumberland Golf Club in 1893, the club initially operated a 9-hole course on the other side of the town near Siddick.

After the course closed during World War I, the club reformed as Workington Golf Club and moved to its present location at Hunday Wood, where another 9-hole course was brought into play. A few years later, James Braid was called in to extend the layout.

John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming take up the story in this edited extract from their book 

James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses

: “Braid paid two visits to the site of an existing nine hole course, which resulted in eighteen holes opening in 1927.

The visit in 1925 was recorded by the local press who noted Braid was entertained to lunch by the committee, which indicates the high regard in which he was held for these were the days when professionals were not permitted to enter clubhouses.

His 10th and 11th holes are now a practice ground as new land was obtained permitting the construction of three new holes. He received £20 for his first visit. On his second visit of inspection in July 1927, he was quoted as saying the course ‘needed further refinements to the bunkers.

This was unusual, as normally Braid was adamant that his original plan was correct.”

Howard Swan was brought in during the early years of the new millennium to carry out a number of unspecified course modifications.

Workington

Overlooking the Solway Firth, the old James Braid course at Workington Golf Club was recently redesigned by Howard Swan. Fairways are routed over undulating terrain with six holes crossing a small brook that runs through the course.

Cumbria lies to the north west of England and its main tourist attraction, the Lake District National Park, covers a sizeable acreage of this region. One of the most sparsely populated counties in England, Cumbria is predominantly mountainous with towering peaks and sparkling lakes that draw millions of visitors to the county every year.

 was formed in 1910 so it has provided golf administration to local clubs for over a century now. Currently, there are 34 such clubs affiliated to the Union and, to switch to some boxing parlance, it has to be said that the county team has punched way above its weight in recent years.

Cumbria Ladies’ County Golf Association

 was formed in 1925 and there are currently 27 clubs affiliated to the association. Its stated aims are to further the interests of ladies’ golf, maintain the CONGU handicap system, comply with EWGA rules governing county golf administration and administer a county championship along with other associated competitions.

In a Northern Counties League consisting of seven districts – including such heavyweights as Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire – Cumbria has won the annual round robin matchplay competition between these teams twice (2002 and 2009) during the last decade.

 rankings were updated in October 2019. Click the link to read the story.