Tracks Less Taken turns to the historic ground of Burntisland Golf House Club in Fife.

Golf has been played here since the late eighteenth century, and the club founded in 1797 is officially recognised as one of the oldest in the world. Its course on the Dodhead ridge was shaped at the dawn of organised golf and later refined by some of the game’s earliest architects, reflecting an era before rules and routings were standardised.

The course sits high on Dodhead, overlooking the Firth of Forth. From the opening stretch the land falls away toward the water, revealing expansive views across to Edinburgh and the Lothians. The setting is vast, open and entirely unshielded from the elements.

Burntisland’s character is rooted in its terrain. Blind tee shots crest natural rises. Fairways move across rumpled ground rather than flattened corridors. Greens appear in folds of land that feel discovered rather than constructed. It is a routing that asks for trust as much as technique

There is little here that feels modern in the conventional sense. The ground dictates play. Uneven lies are part of the examination. Club selection is guided as much by wind as by yardage. It carries the rhythm of early Scottish golf, before uniformity softened the game’s edges.

To play Burntisland is to step into a chapter written before the rulebook was fixed. The landscape remains largely unchanged in spirit, offering a reminder that the origins of the game were shaped by land first, structure second.

To play Burntisland is to step into a chapter written before the rulebook was fixed. The landscape remains largely unchanged in spirit, offering a reminder that the origins of the game were shaped by land first, structure second.