Occupying a dramatic and picturesque setting in the machair behind the Bay at the Back of the Ocean on the west coast of the island in the Inner Hebrides, Iona Golf Course comprises eighteen holes, a total length of 4491 yards and a par of 66. Rather informal in nature, with golfers sharing the links with livestock and no facilities, the course can be played without charge. The first nine holes were laid out c. 1886 on rough grazing land lying between rocky knolls by Allan Macbeth (1856 - 1910), Principal of the Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music, a keen amateur golfer, with the remaining holes designed c. 1905 by William Macneile Dixon (1866 - 1946), Regius Professor of English at the University of Glasgow. Sheep and cattle keep the grass short. Between the First and Second World Wars the men of Iona are said to have stopped work early on Friday afternoons to play golf. The Iona Open is a charity tournament organised each August by the Honourable Company of Iona Golfers. The Honourable Company was founded in 1968 by a group of regular visitors to the island.
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