Ring Commons Pitch and Putt

Balscadden sits on the northern fringe of Howth, the dramatic peninsula that juts into Dublin Bay and defines the skyline when you look north from the city centre. It's a village in the truest sense — a handful of houses clinging to the hillside above a small harbour, with the Hill of Howth rising behind and the Irish Sea stretching east. Golf has long had a presence on this headland; the venerable Howth Golf Club occupies the higher ground, but at the water's edge, pitch and putt has always been the more democratic game.

Ring Commons is a pitch and putt layout in this coastal setting, meaning compact holes played with a wedge and putter — the format that introduced generations of Irish players to the game. Pitch and putt is genuinely embedded in Irish golf culture in a way it isn't elsewhere, with its own national governing body and competitive structure, and County Dublin has some of the country's most-played venues in the format.

Playing here puts you within earshot of the sea, with the Howth peninsula's gorse-covered slopes as a backdrop. It's an accessible, sociable round — the kind of golf that rewards touch and imagination over power, and that suits a breezy coastal afternoon perfectly.