After quite a trek north, including a panoramic tour of Aberdeen's serpentine ring road, we arrived on Friday afternoon at our first destination for the Friday: Cruden Bay. This was once a real gem and prestigious golf resort to rival the likes of Turnberry. For a very interesting and illustrious course history check out : http://www.crudenbaygolfclub.co.uk/railwaystory.htm It's worth quoting the club's own website, which offers a pretty accurate description: "Cruden Bay Golf Course creates unique challenges demanding the skills of power, placement and fine judgement upon the discerning golfer. Set against a backdrop of subtly contoured greens and magnificent panoramic views, it is claimed that golf was played in the village of Cruden Bay as early as 1791. The original course, on the present site, was commissioned by the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR), designed by Old Tom Morris of St Andrews, and opened in 1899. Cruden Bay's 18 holer offers an internationally famous golfing experience - old fashioned links golf at its best - on one of the best links courses in Scotland, and last year was placed at No 52 in the world by Golf Magazine."

We would have loved to play the course, but time constraints meant we opted for the equally pretty but not quite so long 9-hole St Olaf's Course for our traditional "warm-up". The mixture of heavy showers and wind, with intermittent sunshine, set the weather pattern for the entire weekend - variable and challenging conditions for any level of golfer.