Golf at Balcomie Links, Hiking Maspie Den

Thursday was another big walking day, with 18 holes at Crail Golfing Society’s Balcomie Links followed by a 2 mile hike here in Falkland Village to the Maspie Den.

Above a tee box at Balcomie Links

Balcomie would be our last links (and coastal) golf of the trip, and it delivered. This course spends all of its time no more than a fairway’s width (or 2) from the water, and the sea is always in sight. We lucked into a relatively calm, sunny day (resulting in a PCC correction of +1 on our differential) but I still found the course more difficult than the New Course.

Balcomie’s signature par 3

This was another course where some prior or local knowledge would be helpful. Mistakes were made, but the adventure was always fun. Many of the tee boxes had you hitting over our close-to-over a nearby green or tee. This slowed things down a bit but we still finished in close to four hours.

The fourth and fifth holes have tee shots where you can take on the bay and pick your line. It was fun seeing all three of us make the fairways on both with our respective lines.

Julie under a waterfall in Maspie Den

The course was nearly an hour from our Falkland home, so after a late lunch we dashed back so we could pick up some other activities. Julie and I made the short drive into town to hike the Maspie Den, a beautiful wooded glen with some waterfalls and views of the nearby Falkland estate.

Exploring the nearby estate

We’ve found so many trail networks connected directly to the hearts of these small towns, often integrated with community athletic pitches and the local golf course. Falkland Village seems to be getting a lot of Outlander traffic and would be well served by having another restaurant, but the existing hotel and restaurant seem to be making a good go of it.