Castle Stuart

Castle Stuart joined the Cabot collection of golf destinations in 2022, but the story of this “modern classic” in The Highlands begins over a decade prior.

After the success of Kingsbarns, the late Mark Parsinen was due for an encore. He found it in the golf rich region of The Highlands, on a stretch of property adjacent the Moray Firth near Inverness.

From the onset, Castle Stuart was not intended to simply be the “Kingsbarns of the North,” but instead stand alone amongst the ever longer and increasingly difficult designs of modern golf. In outlining his ethos for the course, Parsinen captured the essence of Castle Stuart in the very first sentence:

The course should elicit anticipation and hopefulness in players of all skill levels; let it test one's perceptual ability, judgment, decision-making, shot-making, and emotional poise; let it not be difficult for the sake of being difficult, rather let it be interesting and engaging.

Simply put, playability is the order of the day at Castle Stuart. The wide fairways and large green complexes will likely be a sight for sore eyes for the golfer touring the historic courses of Scotland. Unlike many of the traditional links, at Castle Stuart a poor shot does not necessarily lead to punishing rough or a ball lost to the gorse. Instead, the golfer is usually presented with the delightful opportunity to recover. But don’t mistake this forgiveness for an ease that will make its way to the scorecard. Those same green complexes are precarious if out of position, turning bogey or worse into a distinct possibility.