Carnoustie

Carnoustie. Golf. Majors. The Open. This year’s Open, in fact. It’s a pretty common association when you hear the name. But it turns out that Carnoustie has more to offer than just a great Golf course.

What it is, is a family-friendly seaside town, that happens to have a great Golf course built in. It’s not big, but it does have pretty much all you’d expect from a holiday destination – great beaches, international cuisine (I saw French, Indian, Thai and Local restaurants), play area’s for the kids, a central train station for easy access, and a variety of accommodation options.

While visiting the area with Craig, Basia and their 2 boys, we spend most of Saturday at Lunan Bay, before moving on to Carnoustie, and the children’s play area off the beach (right next to the Golf course). We then stayed overnight at Woodland’s Campsite.

I was up at 4.30 on the Sunday morning, due to an unfortunate lack of mattress space (thanks Sofia!), and took a 10 minute walk from the campsite to the beach, which was completely deserted. Watched the sunrise, explored the rock pools, took loads of photo’s, and headed back to the campsite just before 6. In all that time, I only saw 1 other person. Besides the complete lack of sleep, it was bliss.

The kids loved everything about our wee holiday, from the beach, to the paddling pool, to the open spaces of the campsite. It definitely helped that we happened to visit during one of the hottest Summer’s ever recorded in Scotland.

Carnoustie is also very accessible as a location. Only an hour South of Aberdeen, or 1 1/2 North of Edinburgh, it’s an easy drive. Alternatively, it’s on the main train line from Edinburgh to Aberdeen.

If you’re looking for an easy and relaxed weekend away from the rush of the City, but don’t want to escape from society completely, then this is the place to go.

Date of last visit : 07-08 July 2018