Highcliffe Castle

Few English seaside towns balance genteel resort life and genuine golfing heritage quite like Christchurch, and Highcliffe Castle Golf Club sits at the quieter, residential eastern edge of this corner of the Hampshire and Dorset border country. The club takes its name from the Victorian Gothic castle nearby — a romantic ruin open to the public — and the surrounding area is defined by clifftops, heathland fringes, and the wide coastal plain between the New Forest and Bournemouth's conurbation.

At par 64, this is emphatically a short course, and anyone arriving expecting a championship test will miss the point entirely. Layouts like this reward precision, course management, and an honest short game over raw power, and they have a long tradition in British golf as the everyday heartbeat of club life — unpretentious, walkable, and genuinely enjoyable for a wide range of players.

Christchurch itself sits where the Avon and Stour rivers meet before reaching Christchurch Harbour, and the softer, unhurried atmosphere of the area finds a natural match in a club of this character.