Narin & Portnoo Links

Overview: Narin & Portnoo Links is an 18-hole coastal course on Donegal's Gweebarra Bay, where dunes, beach and changing Atlantic light shape the round. Its appeal is not a uniform resort polish but the variety of shots created by natural contours, blind lines and sandy ground. The course can feel exposed and playful on one hole, then demand restraint and a carefully chosen landing area on the next. The restored layout makes the bay and headland part of the strategy without losing the old-fashioned character of Irish links golf.

History: The present club was founded in 1930, after earlier golf had existed on nearby land, and the course developed from local work into a full 18-hole layout. A major new chapter began when Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner were invited to reimagine the links. Their work in 2019 and 2020 moved greens, added tees and reshaped contours, bringing back more of the original course's quirks while making the routing more coherent. Harry Hamill belongs to an earlier layout on part of the site, not the current Hanse restoration.

Did You Know? The club's own description places the course across about 260 acres of Donegal coastline, while the design team says the property combines internal landform, beaches, rocky outcrops and long views. The redesign also introduced a blind approach to a new seventh green tucked behind dunes and created a new fifteenth and sixteenth sequence, giving the modern course several fresh moments within its historic setting.