Located on the beautiful coast road near Kincasslagh (Cionn Caslach – “Head of the Sea-inlet”), a modest sign points down a narrow road to the sea and unexpectedly bears the legend “Galfchúrsa”, as you are now in the Gaeltacht – the place in Ireland where Irish is the first language, and the road signs often are in Irish only.

Follow the road down to the shore, bear right past the cemetery with every style of Irish crosses on the graves, and cross the causeway to Cruit Island (say it “critch island”). Passing the fishing boats lolling on the beach waiting for the incoming tide to free them, past the thatched cottages puffing peat-scented smoke in to the air, you find a heavenly 9-hole links.

As a matter of fact, it is as close as you will come to playing a round on the deck of an ocean liner at sea. As isolated a venue for golf as you will ever experience.

Don’t be fooled by the length and the fact that this is a nine-holer. It really is a par 68.

The 6^th over the cove defies belief. Steady your nerves as you tee up. This par 3 plays across a rocky inlet to a small green that falls steeply to the ocean behind.

A blinder, with the Atlantic crashing against the rocks, this course is an evocative experience. The stiff Atlantic breeze ensures that no hole plays the same way the second time around the nine. Views from every part of the course are magnificent. Golf back to its roots hundreds of years ago.