Nova Scotia, Canada

Americas

15 Mar

Written By Simon Campbell

World-class golf played, literally, on a cliff edge, Cabot offers two of the best courses on the planet at a stunning Canadian island resort.

Cape Breton is a Canadian island reaching out into the Atlantic, tethered only to the mainland by a man-made bridge. That Cabot is set on a mile of sandy-shored, cliff-edged coast next to a place called Inverness in a land known as ‘New Scotland’, means finding world-class links golf should be of little surprise. But in the short time that this golf resort has been open – little over a decade – it has risen through the bucket-lists of every discerning golf traveller, with a reputation as Canada’s equivalent to Brandon Dunes in Oregon. But so unique are both Cabot Links – the first course, open in 2011 – and Cabot Cliffs, thanks to this rugged chunk of Nova Scotia land, that they shouldn’t be compared to anything else. Cabot Cliffs, which was added in 2015, having been designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore – the team also behind three Bandon courses – immediately rose to Canada’s No.1 golf course, ranking in the world’s top fifty too.

Played consecutively over two days, you’ve got a pairing of golf courses that must surely rank in the top ten in the world. But aside from golf, there’s also fresh-from-the-Atlantic seafood, cooked up by your own chef for dinner on a private beach, fishing, whale watching, distillery tours (it’s not called New Scotland for nothing), or visits to nearby Sable Island, where wild horses roam its shifting sand dunes. And all of this encased within a resort that offers luxury lodges to meet every need.