Big Hairy Coo

Royal Dornoch has long been the top of the Highland experience but it was a long way to go for a round or two of golf, almost a 4-hour drive from St Andrews. For scenery alone, the Scottish Highlands is a bucket-list bullseye! And there’s whisky! Need I say more?

This is the soon-to-be-famous bothy or halfway house on the new Old Petty course at Cabot Highlands next to the 5th green.

In 2009, Mark Parsinen created the breathtaking Castle Stuart Golf Links from a few arable fields overlooking the Moray Firth, much as he had with the perennially popular Kingsbarns in the Kingdom of Fife.

Castle Stuart went on to host the Scottish Open four times. The late Parsinen’s dream was to build another course alongside his Highland sanctum and now that hope has been realised.

Purchased by the Canadian ‘Cabot Collection’ in 2022, Castle Stuart was renamed ‘Cabot Highlands’ and later this year will open a second course, ‘Old Petty’, named after the nearby hamlet & church with the emblematic Highland Cow or ‘Hairy Coo’ as its trademark. Tom Doak is responsible for the design routing the course along a scenic river estuary with views up and down the Firth.