Best golf courses in East Lothian

The region of East Lothian in Scotland offers up some glorious links golf courses, with the majority of the region's best layouts all running up and down the North Sea coastline.

Golf first came to be not too far north of these parts, and it wasn't too long before it made its way south to East Lothian. Despite only having 40 miles of coastline, East Lothian is home to some glorious golf courses, including DP World Tour event hosts. 

With Edinburgh within an hour's drive to the west, the Scottish capital is the perfect place to base yourself during a trip to this part of the world. That is, if you don't stay in the historic spots of Gullane or North Berwick, perhaps... 

Gullane is a former host of the Scottish Open, with the tournament using a composite layout including holes from both the No.1 Course and No.2 Course. The venue also has the No.3 Course, providing it with 54 holes of high-quality links golf. 

The Renaissance Club is the current annual host of the Scottish Open, which is held the week before the Open Championship every year. The sport's oldest competition has been held at Muirfield in the past, another of the world-class courses in the East Lothian region. The area also has the likes of North Berwick, Dunbar, Luffness, Kilspindie and both the Fidra Course and Dirleton Course at Archerfield. 

How we compiled our East Lothian list
We updated our East Lothian list when we created our NCG Top 100s list of the best golf courses in Scotland. If one East Lothian course is above another in our Scotland list, then it will also be above it in our East Lothian list.