The Appleton House is a nearly 7,000-square-foot mansion that once housed former James Bond actor Roger Moore.
Looking for a place to enjoy a cocktail shaken not stirred after a relaxing round on an English golf course that famed broadcaster Henry Longhurst once called one of the most scenic in Europe?
Look no further than Appleton House, a nearly 7,000-square-foot mansion that once housed former James Bond actor Roger Moore.
The property, located in the Stinchcombe area of the Cotswolds just under three hours west of London, is currently available for $2.284 million.
The home sits on Stinchcombe Hills Golf Club, which had its original nine open in 1889 with an additional nine opened in 1906. The course was redesigned in 1922 by Fred Hawtree with more tweaks
Appleton is extremely well presented, having been previously extended and more recently refurbished. The accommodation is arranged over two floors and benefits from both an imposing, formal layout ideal for entertaining, yet to the rear of the property lies a more homely arrangement of rooms ideal for family living with an exceptional orangery and raised terrace overlooking the garden and grounds where you can take in the stunning views beyond.
Upstairs is ample accommodation with three large bedroom suites; the principal suite sits in the centre of the house with a walk-through dressing room. There are three further double bedrooms with a family bathroom and a separate shower room. If ancillary accommodation is required, the house has been designed to separate the southern wing to create a one-bedroom annexe split over two floors.
Appleton House has six bedrooms, five bathrooms and a large additional building, all standing on 2.8 acres of land, including mature woodland.
Moore, who lived in the home in the 1960s, is best remembered for playing James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985, beginning with Live and Let Die and ending with A View to A Kill.
Moore’s relaxed style and sense of whimsy, which relied heavily on the arched eyebrow, seemed a commentary on the essential ridiculousness of the Bond films, in which the handsome British secret agent was as adept at mixing martinis and bedding beautiful women as he was at disposing of supervillains trying to take over the world.
Moore began his acting career at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he studied alongside future Bond co-star Lois Maxwell, who would go on to originate the role of Miss Moneypenny, secretary to Bond’s boss M, the head of MI6.
A 400-year-old castle. Crisscross fairways. Stunning ocean views reaching from water’s edge to higher and farther back. A giant rolling hill. A front nine loaded with par 4s, then a more conventional back nine with two par 3s and two par 5s. Expect humps, bumps, hollows and fun bounces, all along the northern Scottish coastline not far from Inverness.
Tom Doak’s routing for the yet-to-be-named second course at Cabot Highlands was released by the resort’s Canadian-based ownership group this week. It’s a sure bet the famed American designer utilized his vast knowledge of Scottish golf design – accumulated through years of on-the-ground study of the country’s greatest natural links – to create this much-anticipated layout that should open to preview play in 2024 and fully in 2025.
The routing plan for the new Tom Doak-designed course at Cabot Highlands in Scotland shows No. 1 to the left before the layout crosses an estuary and plays to a far point along the coast to the right, then returns to an 18th hole that crisscrosses the first hole. (Courtesy of Cabot)
There’s just one thing: The second course at Cabot Highlands won’t sit on traditional links land. Instead of a totally natural golf site, this property has been farmed for decades, much of it pressed smooth as it rolls past the castle and down that gorgeous hill toward an estuary and the Moray Firth beyond.
That means Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design team have been tasked with creating much of the shot-making drama. On a piece of land that has seen farm tractors instead of greens mowers, they must interject the fun and intricate terrain features that make up the best of Scottish golf.
Doak, of course, knew this when he accepted the job. His stated goal from the beginning: Take what the land offers, don’t overcook anything and, when in doubt, take a drive along the coast for a design refresher at some of the best links courses in the world. It might be St. Andrews to the east, or Royal Dornoch on the opposite side of the firth. Just along this little section of seaside, there’s a wide sampling of classic Scottish links courses to provide inspiration.
Tom Doak discusses his new course at Castle Stuart/Cabot Highlands near Inverness, Scotland. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
“The good thing about trying to do this in Scotland instead of in Florida is, if you’re ever not sure, you drive right over there (pointing out window), or drive up north, and go have a look at a few other courses,” Doak said during a tour of the land in late 2022 as he worked on the routing. “You know, I think most architects, we do too much. The things that are cool about the contouring here (in Scotland) is that it’s small scale and it’s wrinkly, but there are large expanses of fairly flat stuff in with that. It doesn’t just keep going with jittery contours forever. Even the most complex golf courses have big areas of relatively flat areas. …
“You think about it, we’re working on something now that we’re trying to bring in some links contours, so it’s almost like we’re going around and looking at things and sampling (other courses). Like, ‘We could do something like that little stretch somewhere else.’ “
Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen designed the original 18 at what was then named Castle Stuart in Scotland. Rebranded as Cabot Highlands in 2022, the highly ranked layout plays along the Moray Firth. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
A similar recipe already has proved successful at Cabot Highlands, which was known as Castle Stuart until 2022 when Cabot purchased it. The original course on the property – which is still called Castle Stuart Golf Links – was designed on similarly farmed land, and that cliffside layout by Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen that opened in 2009 has climbed to No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of modern courses in Great Britain and Ireland. It’s a layout that’s never feels overdone, with manmade features that appear natural in their jaw-dropping setting.
Doak’s course is intended to complement that original layout and secure for the resort a spot on even more must-play lists.
The routing map shows seven par 4s on the front with an 18-hole par of 72, the layout sweeping from a high point across land formerly occupied by the driving range, down past the castle then around and over the estuary. It extends to a point that, from the clubhouse, appears to be miles away across a small bay. It’s an out-and-back routing that doesn’t return to the clubhouse until No. 18, the line of play for which crisscrosses that of No. 1 in one huge and shared fairway. For much of the journey, Moray Firth and the surrounding mountains will provide plenty of eye candy.
And Cabot isn’t stopping with the new course. The company is pumping in capital to make the entire property even more appealing, with an expansion of the clubhouse underway and new real estate opportunities.
“In the historic home of golf, we looked to Tom to create something special, and perhaps unconventional by modern standards,” Ben Cowan-Dewar, CEO and co-founder of Cabot, said in the media release announcing the routing. “His vision of resurrecting an old true-links style course will serve as a great complement to the beloved (and original) Castle Stuart Golf Links. We hope to create an awe-inspiring destination anchored by incredible golf that will stand the test of time for generations to come.”
The pitcher, who plays for the Cincinnati Red stateside, didn’t leave the letter hanging for long, He wiped the loose “T” off his jersey and continuing on with the day with just “Grea Britain” on the uniform.
Just like all of us, the announcers noticed the “T” on Gibaut’s jersey before it got knocked to the ground.
However, maybe it gave Britain some luck, as they won the day’s game against Columbia, 7-5.
Unfortunate scene: The "T" has fallen off of the jersey of Great Britain pitcher Ian Gibaut. pic.twitter.com/mnlfHh8HkN
Well, it doesn’t always help that letters on jerseys like this aren’t stuck on very well. Maybe the rest of Gibaut’s teammates will get rid of the “T” on their jerseys and all be “Grea Britain” out of solidarity.
As we know, Great Britain has a tough history with handling “T” when it spills.
Come Sunday, though, we were back to witnessing some bad British baseball.
With Darnell Sweeney at the plate against Canada in the fourth inning and two outs, the former Phillies outfielder drove a deep fly ball to right-center field. He was certain the ball was gone — it was not. But it turned out that B.J. Murray — the baserunner on first base — also thought Sweeney left the yard at Chase Field.
Instead of running, Murray skipped slowly towards second base as he admired the ball. By the time he realized the ball was staying in play, Murray was only able to advance to third base.
The wild part about the whole sequence was that it took place with two outs. Murray should have been running on contact and scoring easily. Instead, Great Britain would lose a run from the mental blunder. In the bottom half of the inning, Canada would break the game open with six runs.
Murray will know to hustle and be aware of the outs next time — that’s for sure.
In Saturday’s World Baseball Classic 6-2 loss to Team USA, Great Britain didn’t only fall short on the field. Their unfortunate style choices left a lot to be desired, too.
While teams like Cuba, South Korea, and the Dominican Republic have shown off wonderful uniforms for this international celebration of baseball, Britain wore jerseys that seemingly had minimal effort placed into their design aesthetic. And when I say “minimal,” I mean closer to “zero.”
It’d be one thing to show up and get hammered by the Americans while looking good. The British, while wearing all gray with the blandest font for “Great Britain” adorned across their chest, couldn’t even manage that extremely basic task:
They really opened a word document and typed Great Britain using Arial Black font and slapped it on a jersey pic.twitter.com/wPRZEPG4yF
The links layouts dominate the rankings of the best modern courses in England, Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 rankings of the Top 50 Modern Courses in Great Britain and Ireland – built in or after 1960 – as determined by Golfweek’s Best Raters.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in Great Britain and Ireland to produce the final rankings.
The traditional links courses find spots of honor on this ranking of the best classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 rankings of the Top 50 classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland – built before 1960 – as determined by Golfweek’s Best raters.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course. Then each layout is ranked against others in Great Britain and Ireland to produce the final rankings.
Tom Doak lays out the Holy Grail of golf design, and it might not be what you think.
INVERNESS, Scotland – What do you get when you hand over some 150 acres of prime waterfront land in the Scottish Highlands to American golf architect Tom Doak? Not even Doak is sure yet.
But Cabot – the rapidly expanding Canadian company that started with the highly acclaimed Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia – is betting Doak’s work will be worth an overseas flight for traveling golfers.
Cabot acquired Castle Stuart Golf Links and its eponymous 18-hole layout near Inverness, Scotland, in June with development plans that include a second course and luxury cabins just minutes away from the Inverness airport. The property has been rebranded Cabot Highlands. Ben Cowan-Dewar, CEO and co-founder of Cabot, has hired Doak to build the second 18 with plans to break ground in 2023 and a possible soft opening sometime in 2024.
[afflinkbutton text=”Book your round at Cabot Highlands today” link=”https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-us/vacations/highlands/castle-stuart-golf-links/?cid=999739949&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=golfweek&utm_campaign=scotland_best_courses_q3_22_gw”]
“We’ve got to get the routing done first,” quipped Doak with a laugh as he met with a small group of American and Canadian golf writers in October at Castle Stuart.
Cabot has expanded rapidly in recent years. The company took off in 2012 in Nova Scotia with Cabot Links, a Rod Whitman design that ranks No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern Canadian courses. That course was joined in 2015 by Cabot Cliffs, a Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design that ranks No. 1 on that modern Canadian list.
In the Caribbean, a Coore and Crenshaw design at Cabot St. Lucia is slated to open in 2023. In Canada, the company announced last year the development of Cabot Revelstoke in British Columbia, which will feature a Whitman design scheduled to open in 2024. And in Florida, Cabot has purchased the former World Woods, rebranded it Citrus Farms and is having its two courses renovated with a planned reopening in 2023.
The second course at Cabot Highlands will mark the first time Doak has worked with Cowan-Dewar, but Doak has established himself as one of the premium designers of his era. His course credits, either solo or in combination with other designers, include 12 courses on Golfweek’s Best list of the top 200 modern courses built since 1960 in the U.S., including four in the top 10. He also laid out five of the top 50 Golfweek’s Best modern international courses, including three of the top five on that list.
Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen designed the original 18 at Castle Stuart in Scotland, now named Cabot Highlands. (Golfweek)
Doak met the handful of writers, including this author, at Cabot Highlands’ clubhouse, then led the group on a tour of some of the property where the new course will be constructed. It’s a stunning site alongside the Moray Firth, a huge bay that is fed from a river that flows through nearby Inverness with waters from Loch Ness.
The original 18 at Cabot Highlands, built by Gil Hanse and Castle Stuart founder Mark Parsinen (who died in 2019), sits high upon cliffs overlooking the Moray Firth with some of the most dramatic golf views in Scotland. That course opened in 2009 and ranks No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in Great Britain and Ireland. It has hosted the Scottish Open four times.
Doak’s parcel is lower, stretching from the clubhouse, past a 400-year-old castle that gave the property its original name and down a ridge toward the water. The rolling site has been farmed with the land smoothed over as it descends toward the coast, which means Doak’s team likely will move a lot of earth to create interesting internal contours – similar to the original layout at Castle Stuart.
Doak said the new course won’t quite be a true out-and-back routing with nine holes in one direction and nine coming back, but it likely will be close to that with a few redirections along the way. Parsinen originally planned to build a course by Arnold Palmer on the site, but those plans have been replaced.
Doak spoke candidly about the opportunities, challenges and thrill of building on the site and in Scotland in general. He also spoke openly about several of his other projects around the world and how he approaches the lofty expectations that come with building on such a beautiful site. Lengthy excerpts of that conversation are included below.
As the world mourned her death, many sporting events were postponed across the United Kingdom. The match in Milan between Great Britain and Italy at the EuroBasket tournament, however, was not postponed.
But before the game, both teams took the time to honor the late Queen Elizabeth II with an extended moment of silence.
It was a very powerful tribute at Mediolanum Forum before the two teams played each in the final game of the group phase before the knockout stage begins.
A moment of silence is observed in Milan before the Great Britain vs Italy #EuroBasket game, following the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/LbnkHLPjdo
Queen Elizabeth and the royal family have been fixtures in sports for years.
People around the world are mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday at the age of 96 years old.
Among the mourners includes many prominent sections of the sports world. Leagues are literally postponing games and matches to honor the queen and give people the space to feel what they need to feel.
And it’s no wonder. The queen and the royal family have been fixtures in the sports world throughout the decades of her life. From her love for the equestrian world to her big appearance at the 2012 Olympics and the family’s love of Polo and more, they’ve held a steady presence on many fields.
Here’s a look at them throughout the sports world over the years.
