Kenmare Golf Club

Few settings in Irish golf match the raw drama of Kenmare's backdrop. The course sits at the head of the Kenmare River estuary in the heart of the Iveragh Peninsula, with the MacGillycuddy's Reeks rising to the north and the Caha Mountains pressing in from the south — the same mountain ring that makes this corner of County Kerry one of the most visually arresting landscapes in Europe.

Kenmare Golf Club is a nine-hole parkland layout that doubles over itself to give members and visitors an 18-hole round, a format typical of the tightly bounded community clubs that have been the backbone of rural Irish golf for generations. It is not a championship test, nor does it pretend to be — it is the kind of course where the surroundings do a great deal of the work, and where the relaxed pace of a market town with a serious reputation for good food and hospitality follows you onto the fairways.

Kenmare town itself is a genuinely attractive base for the Ring of Kerry, and the club functions as a welcoming stop for touring golfers working their way between the bigger names on the peninsula.