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Forget everything you think you know about “proper” golf course design. While most layouts follow predictable formulas of manicured fairways and strategically placed bunkers, England harbors a collection of courses that gleefully break every rule in the architectural playbook.
These aren’t your typical country club experiences. They’re golfing adventures where ancient history collides with modern sport, where wildlife shares the fairways, and where a simple round can become an unforgettable story.
England’s quirkiest courses prove that the most memorable golf happens when architects embrace the impossible rather than the predictable. Pack your most reliable golf shoes, because you’ll need the extra grip when navigating clifftop drops, ancient earthworks, and terrain that changes with the seasons.
Painswick Golf Club – The Iron Age Links
The Cotswolds is known for its beauty, and Painswick Beacon is gorgeous. This totally unique course plays through a 3,000-year-old Iron Age hill fort, and five holes weave through ancient ramparts and earthworks, creating blind shots and natural elevation changes that would make modern course architects jealous.
The famous 5th hole is a 114-yard par-3 played completely blind over towering Iron Age fortifications. Once you’ve hit your shot, you ring a bell to signal the all-clear to golfers behind—a fun bit of engagement you don’t find on other courses.
Stretching to just 4,831 yards (par 67), don’t let the modest length fool you. The opening six holes climb relentlessly upward, so there’s some effort involved here. But you’ll be rewarded with panoramic views across Gloucestershire to the Welsh Mountains, a very worthwhile view.
Multiple holes cross each other’s fairways in an appealingly chaotic fashion that somehow works. The course shares its ancient turf with ramblers and dog walkers, adding to the authentic, unsanitised charm. With tiny greens, blind shots, and a setting steeped in genuine history, Painswick offers golf as nature and ancient Britons intended.
Sutton Bridge Golf Club – The Sunken Dock Course
Built in the ruins of a Victorian engineering disaster, this one-of-a-kind 9-hole course plays through an abandoned 1880s dock basin that collapsed into quicksand shortly after opening. The original 15-foot concrete dock walls are now permanent hazards, and you’ll have to either clear them or play around them on several holes. It’s the only course in Britain where maritime history meets golf in such dramatic and interesting fashion.
Don’t be fooled by the modest hole count. You’ll play the 5,822-yard course twice for a par-70 round, and each hole is completely different, with elevation changes created by the sunken dock creating shots you’ll find nowhere else. Bonus: the dock setting means their drainage is fantastic, and they’re almost never closed due to bad weather.
The greens are considered among Lincolnshire’s finest, maintained by the same family for over 70 years. Mature willows and poplars have grown up around the old dock infrastructure, softening the industrial edges while preserving the course’s quirky character. It’s been called one of the country’s top 10 quirkiest courses, and once you’ve played an approach shot over a Victorian dock wall, you’ll understand why.
Berkhamsted Golf Club – The Bunkerless Wonder
Nature designed this course; humans just mowed it. Set in 560 acres of pristine Hertfordshire heathland, Berkhamsted has the absolutely unique feature of having ZERO sand traps, making it one of Britain’s rarest golfing specimens. Instead of artificial hazards, you’ll battle heather, gorse, bracken and an ancient Saxon earthwork called Grim’s Dyke that randomly appears across seven holes like some medieval golf architect’s fever dream.
At 6,700 yards, par 71, this isn’t a monster length-wise, but don’t get complacent. Forced carries over rough ground, blind approaches, and raised putting surfaces with false fronts will humble any handicap, so stay alert and aware. The layout starts unusually with a par-3 and features intimidating tee shots through narrow, tree-lined corridors.
Mullion Golf Club – The Southernmost Links
Located on Cornwall’s windswept Lizard Peninsula, this is as far south as mainland golf gets in England. The opening five holes lull you into false confidence across the high plateau. But the real adventure begins as you plunge toward the Atlantic through some of the most jaw-dropping terrain in British golf. Holes tumble down clifftops toward sandy coves, with the approach shots requiring nerves of steel and perfect club selection.
This 6,053-yard, par-70 layout transforms from gentle parkland to seaside drama faster than a Cornish weather front. The signature middle stretch offers holes unlike anywhere else; greens perched above beaches, shots across ravines, and views that stretch to St Michael’s Mount. And when the wind howls (which it will), you’ll understand why locals call it both beautiful and brutal in equal measure. Might want to opt for full-lengths instead of shorts here!
Bramshaw Golf Club – The Forest Course
Welcome to golf’s wildest zoo experience. Hampshire’s oldest layout (circa 1865) treats you to 18 holes shared with free-roaming New Forest ponies, deer, cattle, and even the occasional pig munching acorns. The fairways get trimmed twice yearly by greenkeepers, then maintained daily by four-legged “staff” who consider your ball an intrusion on their ancient grazing rights.
Built on common land within the New Forest National Park, this par-70 gem sprawls across humps, hollows, and meandering streams that test your imagination as much as your technique. Expect awkward lies, natural obstacles, and wildlife encounters that range from charming to mildly terrifying.
The 12th hole demands a carry over a gorgeous valley stream, while the finishing hole presents a blind approach around scraggly woodland. Conditions vary wildly depending on recent rainfall and animal activity, making every round a fresh adventure. There’s no such thing as pristine surfaces and predictable bounces here. If you crave golf as Mother Nature intended (raw, rustic, and utterly memorable), this sanctuary delivers just that.
St. Enodoc Golf Club – The Church Course
Golf doesn’t get more atmospheric than this Cornish masterpiece. Named after the 13th-century church that sits beside the 10th green (once buried by sand, later excavated), this James Braid creation weaves through towering sand dunes overlooking the Camel Estuary and picturesque Padstow beyond. The course is famous for its “Himalayas” bunker on the 6th, a 75-foot sand mountain that guards the green like some ancient fortress.
Its World Top 100 status comes from the extraordinary variety packed into 6,557 yards, par 69. You’ll play through dunes, across stone walls, over streams, and around the historic church where Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman lies buried after falling in love with this place.
The 10th follows a natural ravine to a pencil-thin fairway, while the finishing holes provide stunning elevated drama. Some holes feel like pure links, others hint at parkland or downland. It’s delightfully impossible to categorize.
Perranporth Golf Club – The Clifftop Thriller
Prepare for vertigo-inducing golf at its most spectacular. Perched high above three miles of golden Cornish beach, this James Braid links from 1927 features adrenaline-pumping shots where missing fairways means 200-foot drops to the Atlantic below. The 5th and 14th tees might have you reaching for your camera before your driver, so don’t lose focus!
Braid’s original routing remains unchanged for good reason. At 6,296 yards, par 72, it’s filled with bounces that defy physics, blind shots, and putting surfaces considered among the Southwest’s finest.
Keep in mind that the wind coming off the ocean can turn straightforward holes into strategic nightmares and test your nerves as well as your skill. Some shots feel borderline reckless with the cliff edges so close, but that’s precisely the point.
Conclusion
These seven courses prove that golf’s greatest moments come from embracing the unexpected. While modern designs prioritize predictability, these layouts celebrate the sport’s chaotic soul, reminding us that golf began as a simple game played over whatever terrain was available.
Whether you’re dodging livestock at Bramshaw or conquering the Himalayas bunker at St. Enodoc, these venues offer something no championship course can replicate: genuine surprise on every shot. Your scorecard might suffer, but your stories will last a lifetime.
About the Author
Jordan Fuller is a retired golfer and businessman. When he’s not on the course working on his own game or mentoring young golfers, he writes in-depth articles for his website, Golf Influence.
