Swing north for a superior golf break

As well as producing some of the world’s top professionals, including Rory McIlroy, the North is home to an impressive selection of golf courses where players of any standard can practise their skills

Royal Belfast Golf Club, where every hole is memorable, especially on the back nine which hugs the shore of Belfast Lough. With a stately clubhouse, it boasts of being the oldest golf club in Ireland

Whatever small fragment of golfing finesse I first learned was picked up as a child on a hilly pitch and putt course called Tolka Lodge in Finglas. Its sloping greens were as fiendishly treacherous as those at Augusta National during the US Masters tournament, and its scenic highlight – the 17th tee box – was located directly ...