Castlemartyr Golf Club

Overview: Castlemartyr Golf Club contains a full 18-hole inland-links-style course at Castlemartyr Resort in East Cork. The resort lists a par 72 and 6,728 yards, with Ron Kirby credited as the designer. The course uses the old manor estate’s meadows, woodland and water features to create a parkland round with links-inspired shaping and strategy. Its location between Cork city and the east Cork coast makes it a natural part of a southern Ireland golf itinerary, but the course’s defining identity is the historic estate setting.

History: The course was created as part of the Castlemartyr resort development, adjacent to the ruins of an 800-year-old castle and an eighteenth-century manor house. Ron Kirby’s Irish portfolio also includes Dromoland Castle, Old Head and Mount Juliet, which helps place Castlemartyr within a wider tradition of resort courses designed to work with historic land. The resort itself opened to guests in 2008; the golf course’s current page does not state a separate opening year, so that field is left blank.

Did You Know? Castlemartyr’s “inland links” description is deliberate. The course is not beside the sea, yet Kirby uses open ground, sandy-looking shaping and strategic hazards to create some links-like visual and playing cues. The castle ruins and manor house provide the historical frame, while the course remains a modern 18-hole resort layout.