Rathsallagh Golf Club

Few Irish parkland courses carry quite the atmosphere of Rathsallagh, set on the grounds of a historic country house estate in the rolling farmland of County Wicklow. The course was designed by Christy O'Connor Jr. and Peter McEvoy and opened in 1994, routing its holes through mature woodland, open meadow, and along the natural contours of what was once a working walled garden. That walled garden — a genuine rarity — forms one of the course's most distinctive features, giving the layout an intimacy and sense of enclosure you don't encounter elsewhere.

Wicklow calls itself the Garden of Ireland, and Rathsallagh earns that context honestly. The soft, fertile ground and established tree cover make for lush, sheltered conditions, though the more exposed stretches can leave you fully at the mercy of whatever the Irish midlands decide to send across. It plays longer and more demanding than a casual glance suggests.

Rathsallagh House itself functions as a country house hotel, meaning an overnight stay here is a genuine option — and given the setting, a genuinely tempting one.