Belfast
& the Causeway
Four Causeway Rounds · 8 Days · The Merchant Hotel · Belfast
Mosaico Travels
Curated Luxury · Exceptional Destinations
One city. One hotel.
The whole Causeway Coast.
The Causeway Coast holds four of the most beloved links courses in Britain & Ireland — Royal Portrush's Open-champion Dunluce, its newly-renovated sister Valley Links, the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open host at Portstewart Strand, and the hidden-gem Castlerock just across the River Bann. They sit within a single hour's drive of one another. And they sit within a single hour's drive of Belfast.
This Mosaic Journey takes the unhurried route. Seven nights at The Merchant — Northern Ireland's only AA 5 Red Star hotel, in the cobbled heart of the Cathedral Quarter. Four championship rounds on the Causeway. A day at the centre to set the rota down and ride out into the Falls and Shankill with a local in a black taxi — a story Belfast tells better than any place else in the world.
- 7 nights at The Merchant Hotel — Cathedral Quarter, Grade A listed former Ulster Bank headquarters
- Royal Portrush Dunluce Links — host of The 153rd Open Championship, July 2025
- Royal Portrush Valley Links — newly renovated by Mackenzie & Ebert, three new holes
- Portstewart Strand Course — host of the 2017 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open
- Castlerock Mussenden Links — Ben Sayers & Harry Colt, refined by Martin Hawtree in 2018
- Private Black Taxi Tour of the Troubles — Falls Road, Shankill Road, Peace Wall on Cupar Way
- Causeway Coast cultural day — Giant's Causeway, Bushmills Distillery, Dunluce Castle ruins
One base. Four legends.
One unforgettable middle day.
Most golf trips to the Causeway shuffle hotels every other night. This one doesn't. Seven nights in the same room at the Merchant, the same maître d' at the Great Room, the same bartender at Berts. Four mornings, the driver's already outside. One mid-week morning, you do something else entirely.
Eight Days from a Single Doorstep
A staggered rota: gentle warm-up to championship climax, with the Black Taxi day squarely in the middle and the Causeway exploration day as breath before the Dunluce finale.
Arrival · Belfast
Into the Cathedral Quarter
Fly into Belfast International (BFS), Belfast City (BHD) or Dublin (DUB, transfer 1h 50m). Private car directly to the Merchant on Waring Street — the former Ulster Bank Head Office of 1860, now Northern Ireland's only AA 5 Red Star hotel. Settle in to your Victorian Splendour or Art Deco Decadence room. Welcome dinner in the Great Room beneath Ireland's largest chandelier and the soaring domed ceiling. A nightcap in the cocktail bar.
Round 1 · Castlerock Golf Club
A Gentle Causeway Welcome
Private driver collects you in time for the 1-hour drive north to Castlerock — sat across the Bann estuary from Portstewart, in the shadow of the Mussenden Temple high on its cliff. Ben Sayers laid out the original 18 in 1908, Harry Colt refined it in 1925, and Dr Martin Hawtree completed a restorative six-hole reshape in 2018. The famous 4th — "Leg O' Mutton" — is a 200-yard par 3 with a railway line to the right, a burn to the left, and a raised green with no place to bail out. A perfect rota-opener: enough teeth to wake you up, generous enough to send you home smiling. Lunch in the clubhouse, return to Belfast.
Round 2 · Portstewart Strand
The Best Front Nine in Links Golf
Just over an hour up the M2 to the Causeway, and into one of the great opening tee shots in golf — elevated, dropping 425 yards down the dogleg behind the dunes to the green tucked far below. The front nine at Portstewart's Strand Course winds through the towering Thistly Hollow dunes — added in 1992 — and is widely considered among the most thrilling opening nines anywhere. Jon Rahm shot 24-under here to win the 2017 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. Lunch on the terrace overlooking the Atlantic, drive south back to Belfast for dinner at Berts Jazz Bar — French bistro, live jazz seven nights a week.
Cultural Day · West Belfast
The Black Taxi & the Peace Wall
No clubs today. A late breakfast in your robe. Mid-morning, a private black taxi pulls up to the Merchant's door, driven by a Belfast local who grew up on one side of the Peace Line and has spent thirty years driving guests around both. Two hours through Falls Road and Shankill Road — the Bobby Sands mural, the International Wall, the loyalist murals around Hopewell Crescent, the Clonard Memorial Garden in Bombay Street, gates in the Peace Line that still close every night. Sign your name on the Cupar Way wall, beside Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama. Afternoon: a wander down to Cathedral Quarter, dinner among the cobbles. The Cloth Ear, the hotel's own pub, for a final stout.
Cultural Day · The Causeway Coast
Giants, Whiskey & a Castle in Ruins
Private driver and guide for a full day on the North Antrim coast. The 40,000 basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway — UNESCO World Heritage Site, fashioned (depending on whom you ask) by either tertiary volcanism or the giant Finn McCool. A lunch stop at Bushmills Distillery — the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery, granted its licence by King James I in 1608 — for a private tasting. Afternoon at Dunluce Castle, the 13th-century cliff-top ruin that gives the Open course its name and overlooks the 5th green of the Dunluce Links. Return to Belfast, dinner at the Cathedral Quarter's Northern Whig.
Round 3 · Royal Portrush Valley Links
The Sister Course, Reborn
Up the Causeway road one more time — to Royal Portrush itself, and the recently transformed Valley Links. Originally laid out by Harry Colt in 1932, the Valley has just emerged from a major redesign by Martin Ebert and Mackenzie & Ebert: three new holes (the last looking out to the Atlantic for the first time in the course's history), subtle re-routing, re-contoured greens, and the same impeccable conditioning as its world-famous sister. A serious primer for tomorrow — and a course many regard as inside the world top 100 in its own right. Lunch in the Royal Portrush clubhouse, return to Belfast for an early dinner.
Round 4 · Royal Portrush Dunluce Links
The Open's Course
The finale. Royal Portrush's Dunluce Links — Harry Colt's masterpiece, reshaped by Martin Ebert ahead of the 2019 Open and again for The 153rd Open in July 2025. The new par-5 7th "Curran Point" running 590 yards from an elevated tee. The new par-4 8th, "Dunluce," looking out at the castle ruins on its limestone cliff. White Rocks at the 5th. And — at the 16th — Calamity Corner, the 236-yard par-3 that made Shane Lowry's name in 2019. World top 20, ranked 7th in the British Isles by Golf Monthly. The course you came here to play. Farewell dinner in the Great Room, Veuve Clicquot in the champagne lounge.
Departure · Belfast
A Final Belfast Morning
A leisurely last breakfast. Time for one more walk through Cathedral Quarter, or a ten-minute taxi to the Titanic Quarter for the Northern Ireland's most-visited attraction. Mid-morning private transfer to BFS, BHD, or DUB for onward flights.
The Causeway Coast Quartet.
Round 01
Castlerock
Mussenden Links · Ben Sayers, Harry Colt & Hawtree · Co. Londonderry
Round 02
Portstewart
Strand Course · 2017 Irish Open · Willie Park Jr / Des Giffin
Round 03
Royal Portrush — Valley
Harry Colt · Mackenzie & Ebert renovation · 3 new holes
Round 04 · Final
Royal Portrush — Dunluce
2025 Open · Harry Colt · World Top 20 · UK&I #7
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The Merchant Hotel
Cathedral Quarter
Northern Ireland's only AA 5 Red Star hotel — and the only place to stay in Belfast that puts you, after a day on the Causeway, into a building of equal stature. The Merchant occupies the Grade A listed former headquarters of the Ulster Bank, built in Giffnock sandstone in 1860 and reopened as a hotel in April 2006 in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter.
Sixty-two rooms across two distinct wings — Victorian Splendour in the original building, Art Deco Decadence in the elegantly added extension. Suites named after Belfast writers and poets. Below: the Great Room Restaurant beneath Ireland's largest chandelier and a soaring domed ceiling, AA 2 Rosette afternoon tea, Berts Jazz Bar with live jazz seven nights a week, the Cloth Ear pub, an award-winning cocktail bar, and Ollie's nightclub. Above: a basement spa with five treatment rooms and hydrotherapy area, and a rooftop gym with steam, sauna, and an eight-person hot tub looking out over the city.
- 62 rooms & literary suites
- The Great Room · 2 AA Rosette
- Berts Jazz Bar · 7 nights
- The Cloth Ear pub
- Award-winning cocktail bar
- Spa · 5 treatment rooms
- Rooftop gym · sauna · hot tub
- 30 min to Belfast International (BFS)
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A Black Taxi, a Peace Line,
and the city told in murals.
The Belfast Peace Walls — peace lines, locally — are not a museum exhibit. They are still here. Still standing along Cupar Way, still gated, still closing at night. The first one went up in 1969 between the nationalist Falls Road and the unionist Shankill Road; today there are nearly a hundred separation barriers in the city, stretching twenty-one miles. Visitors come, sign their names, and leave on a wall that Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama, and Bono have all signed before them.
The way to see this, by general consensus, is in a black taxi with someone who lived it. Two hours, hotel pickup at the Merchant. Falls Road first — the Bobby Sands mural at the corner of Sevastopol Street, the International Wall, the Garden of Remembrance, the Clonard Memorial Garden in Bombay Street where the IRA was reborn in 1969. Then through a gate in the Peace Line into Shankill Road — the loyalist murals along Hopewell Crescent, the Stevie McKeag piece, the Ulster Covenant. The driver has stories to share, and questions to take. It is one of the most quietly remarkable two hours you can spend on this trip.
The City & the Coast Around You.
You're in the Cathedral Quarter, ten minutes from the Titanic Quarter, an hour from one of the natural wonders of Europe. Belfast on the doorstep, the Causeway up the road.
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Titanic Quarter
Titanic Belfast
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Falls Road
The International Wall
Queen's Island
Titanic Slipways
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Cupar Way
The Peace Wall
North Antrim
The Causeway Coast
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Donegall Square
Belfast City Hall
Everything Taken Care Of
The Merchant — 7 Nights
Seven nights in a Victorian Splendour or Art Deco Decadence room with daily Irish breakfast, full access to the spa, rooftop gym and hot tub, and a turn-down service that includes a poem on the pillow.
Four Causeway Rounds
Confirmed tee times at Castlerock (Mussenden Links), Portstewart (Strand Course), Royal Portrush (Valley Links), and Royal Portrush (Dunluce Links — 2025 Open course). All green fees included.
Caddies at Royal Portrush
Pre-booked caddies on both Royal Portrush rounds. Local knowledge on the Dunluce Links is invaluable — particularly on the new 7th & 8th and at Calamity Corner. Caddies available on request at Castlerock and Portstewart.
Black Taxi Tour
Two-hour private tour of the Falls Road, Shankill Road, Peace Wall, and Clonard Memorial — guided by a local cabbie who lived through the Troubles. Hotel pickup. Optional Crumlin Road Gaol add-on.
Causeway Coast Day
Full-day private guided excursion to the Giant's Causeway (UNESCO World Heritage), the Bushmills Distillery (private tasting), and Dunluce Castle ruins.
Curated Dining & Transfers
Welcome dinner at the Great Room, four golf-day clubhouse lunches, farewell dinner. Airport pickup, all golf-day private transfers to and from the Causeway Coast, and departure transfer.
Package Pricing
Per person starting from rates. Includes 7 nights at The Merchant, all four green fees, Royal Portrush caddies, the Black Taxi Tour, the full Causeway Coast day, welcome and farewell dining, and all private transfers.
Starting From
per person · USD · double occupancy
7 nights at The Merchant · Castlerock · Portstewart · Valley · Dunluce · Royal Portrush caddies · Black Taxi Tour · Causeway Coast day · All transfers & dining
Starting From
per person · USD · double occupancy
Same accommodations · Merchant spa credit · Black Taxi Tour · Causeway Coast day · Titanic Belfast private tour · Crumlin Road Gaol · Afternoon tea at the Great Room
"This tournament and Augusta are my two favourite events in the entire world. And it never disappoints. It didn't here. It was awesome."— Tiger Woods, on Royal Portrush
One Hotel. One City.
Four Causeway Rounds.
We'd love to walk you through 2026 and 2027 dates, available tee times at Royal Portrush's Dunluce Links, and which suite at the Merchant — Carson, Heaney, or Larkin — fits the trip best.