For the most part, we’re lucky.

Scotland has five notable golf playing regions that operate as ‘sort of’ clusters, (although its a very loose categorisation – they can become incredibly territorial if we attach the name of a course to somewhere that’s a few miles the wrong side of an administrative boundary for the ease communicating its location!)

We’re lucky though in so much that the correlation between Scotland’s top golf courses and her genuine top-drawer visitor attractions is naturally strong. We don’t really have to force square pegs into round holes to make things fit.

In addition to complementary co-location, there is also places that we can pass through in a line of travel that offer us opportunity as well

What is there for Non-Golfers in Scotland on a Golf Trip? the answer is quite a lot

Principal non-golf areas, arrow right or swipe left >>>>>>>>
Less visited areas below

Combines well with Golf at – Muirfield, North Berwick, & Gullane. A day trip from St Andrews by train is comfortable too

Few trips to Scotland could really be considered complete without Edinburgh. The Scottish capital is frequently regarded as one of the UK’s most charismatic cities.

Most visitors will prioritise the castle that overlooks the city below. Greyfriars Bobby, Holyrood Palace, and the various galleries are all legitimate attractions. Princes Street is the main shopping thoroughfare with its adjacent gardens providing respite, whereas the more eclectic Victoria Street certainly has many supporters who will tell you that it is better than the ‘chain store’ dominated New Town, and especially younger folk with an interest in Harry Potter, since this is the part of town where the books were written and the surrounding streets (and graveyard) helped inspire JK Rowling

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Combines well with Golf at – St Andrews, Kingsbarns, Dumbarnie,  & Carnoustie.

The town of St Andrews is a legitimate visitor draw in it’s own right irrespective of any golf. The town is host to the third oldest university in the western world and consequently lends the ‘auld grey toon’ a certain vibrancy and a lot more life than you might expect.

The ruined old castle and cathedral lend it historical relevance and can be visited on foot from the town centre, as can the beach, made famous in the opening sequence of the ‘best picture’ Oscar winning film, ‘Chariots of Fire’.

Outside of St Andrews the picturesque fishing villages of the East Neuk (Crail, Anstruther, Pittenweem and St Monan’s) are atmospheric, with local histories, rather than being of national significance. These villages are an integral part of the fabric of Fife and easily overlooked, but fishing has played an historically important role.

Falkland Palace is the one time home of Mary Queen of Scots and a film location for the fantasy time travel series ‘Outlander’

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Combines well with Golf at – Gleneagles. Day trip from Edinburgh by train is easily achieved too

Stirling is one of Scotland’s great historical cities. It sits at the first historic fording / bridging point on the river Forth which naturally leant it a strategic significance down the centuries given that its also surrounded by high ground

Stirling is overlooked by the Stirling Castle that towers above it, the former stronghold of the Stewart dynasty. Stirling is also the scene of the battle of Stirling Bridge (1296) better known today as ‘Braveheart’. The consequential ‘Wallace Monument’ is another notable landmark in the skyline, with ancient warrior’s sword (allegedly) on display. The site of Bannockburn (1314), is the scene of Scotland’s iconic victory over their English foes and is approximately 3 miles to the south.

If time permits, (and it doesn’t always) we might be include the fabulously preserved village of Culross with its tight cobbled streets and brightly coloured traditional buildings

Combines well with Golf at – Carnoustie. 

In truth, we normally ‘do’ Carnoustie as a day trip from St Andrews rather than necessarily staying there, but that still leaves any non-golfers in need of somewhere to visit since the town of Carnoustie needn’t be an apex destination

Glamis Castle is a royal estate and one of Scotland’s most storied and haunted citadels

The city of Dundee has started to grow legitimate visitor attractions as part of an urban regeneration programme and can increasingly be justified, notably the SS Discovery, which could easily leave slightly disbelieving that anyone could sail that ship to the Antarctic and come back alive

The ruin of Arbroath Abbey is where the declaration of independence was signed in 1320, and although not strictly in Angus, Scone Palace can usually put into a non-golf circuit with Glamis

Combines well with Royal Dornoch, Castle Stuart, Nairn, and Speyside whisky trips

The Highlands of Scotland is where we find an evocative and colourful collision of landscape, history, myths and legends. In many respects this is romantics idea of the quintessentially Scottish experience, dominated as it is by clan feuding, big open expanses of wild and terrain, bleak moorlands, deep lochs, and dark mountains

Amongst the highlights would be the fabled Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle that overlooks the dark water.

The battlefield of Culloden is arguably the single most interesting site in Scotland (personal opinion). “Upon this field was Scotland lost”, is the much opined lament, but today you can walk that same field, and stand in the same places where those did so in 1746

Glen Coe is a steep sided glaciated valley with mountains that rise threateningly above us and has moods. The Glen is the scene of the infamous massacre of the MacDonald’s in 1692, and one of the most notorious names in Scottish history. It’s just about possible as a dedicated day-trip from Inverness

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Combines well with golf at Royal Aberdeen, Cruden Bay and Trump Aberdeen. Can also be used for whisky day trip into Speyside

Aberdeenshire is one of two regions where the non-golf offer is a little bit weaker, albeit perhaps this is more a case of needing to go in search of it rather than having it on our doorstep

The city of Aberdeen needn’t have the landmarks or cultural profile to hold us, so we probably have to travel up the Dee valley into the Royal Estates and the Cairngorm. This is a sort of hybrid landscape that we might describe as prettier than the bleaker highlands.

Here we’ll find the highland centre of Braemar, famous for its annual Highland ‘Gathering’ (often erroneously referred to as ‘Games’). We’ll also find Balmoral Castle here, as well as numerous pretty villages along the course of this notable salmon river

To the south of Aberdeen we find Dunnottar Castle, which is an atmospheric ruin perched impressively on an unusual headland that lends it a sense of drama, and some slightly optimistic comparisons with Macchu Picchu

Combines well with Troon, Turnberry and Prestwick

Unfortunately, not every Scottish region has the same rich depth of non-golf offer. The Ayrshire is probably the weakest of Scotland’s golf playing regions and we tend to advise that anyone staying here for any length of time ought to be golfers really

The city of Glasgow is only 45 mins away and can easily be day tripped using a train from Troon or Prestwick. Scotland’s biggest city might not have the ‘landmarks’ of Edinburgh, but it certainly doesn’t lack for personality

Culzean Castle is the regions most prominent citadel, the well preserved ancestral seat of the Clan Kennedy, albeit the President it’s most associated with is Eisenhower, to whom it was gifted after WW2, and he did indeed stay there a total of four times before it was returned to the national estate

Ayr and Troon are associated with Rabbie Burns, Scotland’s Bard, but this would be a specialist area, albeit more interesting than you might first imagine it to be