Welcome to the first of a six-part series, called The Golfer’s Guide to Ireland’s Ancient East.
In September 2023, my friend Brendan Sweeney and I went to Ireland with our friends at Club Choice Ireland. Tiernan Byrne, the incredible owner of Club Choice, took us around a region of Ireland known as the Ancient East, which encompasses the eastern coast of Ireland. The Ancient East is, more or less, an area within a 3-4 hours’ driving distance from the capital, Dublin.
On our journey, we played six courses and experienced a variety of towns, pubs, hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions, in what was an unforgettable trip.
In this series, I’m going to write about each course that we played along the way, as well as the towns and cities that were our home bases throughout the trip — with an eye on where to eat and drink, as well as some great sights and tourist attractions to see.
When we arrived at the Dublin airport, it was almost mid-morning Ireland time. I had arrived from the D.C. area, while Brendan came in a little later from Florida. Tiernan was there waiting for us with a cup of coffee and just the right amount of encouragement to do what you should always do when flying overseas — fight to stay up as long as you can. If you can manage to fight through the jet leg and stay up in local time about as late as you normally would at home, then you’re in great shape. That’s especially true if there’s a morning tee time to catch.
We were going to start our journey based in Malahide, a city about an hour’s car ride northeast of Dublin. It’s right on the water, and it’s a central location for a variety of great courses in the Ancient East — including Jameson Golf Estates, Portmarnock, The Island and St. Anne’s. We were going to play Jameson Golf Esates in our second round on Day 3, and the town is so much fun that it was worth setting up shop there for an hour drive north to County Louth for our first round.
After stopping at the Avoca Malahide for a great early lunch, we got to the Grand Hotel Malahide. The Grand Hotel Malahide is a beautiful, four-star historic hotel with views of Malahide Beach and the harbor off the Irish Sea. The hotel can be a bit of a labyrinth, but it has everything a traveling golfer could want: a comfy bed, plenty of scenic window views, pool and hot tub access, several bars for guests and friendly service. Brendan and I checked in first the first of three nights there, and then we made the short 10-minute walk into the town center.
Malahide is a town of almost 19,000 people, but it has the energy and atmosphere of a place three or four times that size. That’s thanks to a lively main drag on New Street, with bars and restaurants aplenty, including the world-famous Gibney’s. The thing I love about so many Irish (and English and Scottish) pubs is all the hidden places to explore. The back bar. The secondary bar. Sometimes an upstairs or downstairs bar. Side rooms. All kind of places and manor for people to gather. Gibney’s had it all. It was quieter during the day than it was when we came back at night — which was fantastic — but we still had a great time chatting it up with the staff and getting the lay of the land. A pint of Guinness and a few Irish pale ales later, and we figured we had beaten back the jet lag.
Eventually, we made our way to Duffy’s, another great pub just around the corner. A little more of an elegant place, Duffy’s beautiful skylight windows let in the outside late in the day, while there were plenty of tables and bar stools to eat, drink and catch up — the craic, if you will. We got to share stories with Malahide locals, fellow travelers and everyone in between. If making time to get to know people isn’t your thing, you’ll miss out on one of the best parts of Ireland: the people.
Brendan and I slogged it back to the hotel, victorious over our brains and our livers, ready for golf the next day.
County Louth Golf Club — also known as Baltray — is situated on the same coastline as Malahide, just an hour north. The town on the address is Drogheda, a middle-class city just a little southwest of the golf club. Baltray is abutted by Seapoint Golf Links, making for a great two-for-one day if golf if you can do it. For us, though, we had Baltray unto itself.
The club was founded in 1892, and Thomas Gilroy laid out the course in 1894. Tom Simpson and his assistant, Molly Gourlay, redesigned the course in 1938, and those changes largely remain in place today. The clubhouse is modest but gorgeous, reflective of the club’s massive history in Irish golf. It’s a proper locker room with a great member dining area and bar. Right off the dining room is the practice putting green, and you can catch a small glimpse of what you’re about to play.
As we made our way to the first tee, it was spitting rain and blowing hard off the water — exactly what I had imagined so many times when I thought of playing golf in Ireland. Baltray tips out at 7,031 yards, but we moved up a few boxes and were still challenged on the opener to remember how to play golf, account for the wind and hit the ball. It set a great tone for the entire course — plenty wide from tee to green, giving the golfer a chance, even when the wind is howling. There are plenty of run-up areas and pathways, letting a golfer play closer to the turf and still be effective. The putting surfaces are fast and pure, and they’re so green. The playing turf contrasts stunningly with the native grass areas, including the dunes that protect the holes and divide the course from the beach and the sea. The dunes and hills frame the course spectacularly and make for some captivating tee shots. The rough is playable at Baltray, but finding the tall stuff more than a few times will make for a long afternoon.
County Louth offers hero shots aplenty, including at the par-5 third, where there’s a blind second shot over a knoll to a sunken green. I made a 75-foot bomb on that hole that really woke me up. The next hole is a drivable par 4, even from 350 yards out, with humps and bumps to escort the ball to the green. The par-5 6th is wide open off the tee but invites the golfer to take on some risks in search of an eagle.
The 12th hole was probably my favorite tee shot, playing into a dogleg that’s somewhat shrouded off the tee, then playing into a punchbowl-looking landing area that isn’t quite that simple.
The par-4 14th is the pinnacle of the course. The short par 4 is just 332 yards from the tips, but the tee shot has to go at least 200 yards to find the fairway. The green complex appears postage-stamp sized, and it’s well guarded by bunkering in front and back (some hidden to the eye), as well as tall grass and mounding to poor tee shots or approach shots. The tee shot is from an elevated box, with the walk paid off with an incredible view of the sea, as well as Seapoint, which meets up with Baltray just over some high-grass mounds. That moment, right there, was the one where I really felt we had made it, playing one of the best short par 4s in the world.
After closing out with a birdie on the par-5 18th hole, we had our second meal of the day in the clubhouse, and then we made our way back to Malahide — and another run-in at Gibney’s.