Building Carne — unique collection chronicles how Carne Golf Links came to be

Thanks to its designer, Carne feels like it has been here for generations, and yet it only opened in 1992.

Building Carne Golf course at Belmullet in Co Mayo

I took my father to Belmullet in 2006, for his 75th birthday. I had booked two rounds of golf at Carne Golf Links. Conscious of his age, I rented a buggy for our second round and ended up riding it alone as dad strode across a landscape more befitting a giant’s playground. I would see him one moment only to find he had disappeared the next, the dunescape swallowing him whole before spitting him out a hundred yards away, across terrain no buggy could navigate.

The memories of those two days sank in deep, immovable, unforgettable. Carne harnesses the raw power of towering dunes that swell and buckle and engulf you. At times you are lost in their depths, at others you are high above with views crackling across the horizon. Every step embraces the end-of-the-world spirit that defines this links, as well as Belmullet, itself.