Seen from the air, the Banff Springs brings new meaning to the word "majestic." It's as if an ancient castle has been plucked from a Scottish estate and set down in a river valley surrounded by the snow-dusted peaks of the Canadian Rockies. The "Castle in the Rockies" was constructed a century ago and is so authentic that any Scottish baron strolling its halls and great rooms would feel at home. But the "baron" who built it was Canadian Pacific Railway manager Cornelius Van Horne, who made

Seen from the air, the Banff Springs brings new meaning to the word "majestic." It's as if an ancient castle has been plucked from a Scottish estate and set down in a river valley surrounded by the snow-dusted peaks of the Canadian Rockies. The "Castle in the Rockies" was constructed a century ago and is so authentic that any Scottish baron strolling its halls and great rooms would feel at home. But the "baron" who built it was Canadian Pacific Railway manager Cornelius Van Horne, who made tourism in the western Rockies a reality. Thanks to him, Banff Springs became the "in" place to be at the start of the last century. The hotel guest list bore names such as King George VI, Helen Hayes, and Benny Goodman—for whom an airport was built so he could land his plane.

In 1926 Stanley Thompson was tapped to create "the world's best mountain course" at the hotel. He gets full credit for the design, but Thompson actually reworked an earlier layout by Donald Ross. Mother Nature gets credit for the signature fourth hole. When an avalanche in the spring of 1927 created a glacial lake, Thompson turned it into the par-3 Devil's Cauldron, once ranked one of the top four holes in the world by Golf Magazine. The hole drops 80 feet from a granite outcropping to a green fronted by the lake and menaced by six bunkers. The view from the tee down the valley is priceless.

Thompson spent $1 million of the railway's money, making it the most expensive course in the world at that time. The CPR discovered it was money well spent, for the course was ranked eighth in the world by 1939.

A constant presence is the Bow River, tinted turquoise by glacial silt. Another is the in-your-face mountains in every direction. In 1989 nine holes were added and shuffled into the routing so there's a mix of classic holes throughout. And lots of drama, especially on the par 3s, beginning with the second hole. It's a false-fronted gem—the only remaining Ross-designed green. The new sequence works beautifully, but purists can opt to play the original layout with a caddy and hickory clubs.

For more than 20 years freelancer Dale Leatherman has specialized in golf and adventure travel. Assignments take her all over the world, but she's always happy to be back home playing mountain courses in West Virginia. She is also president-elect of the Society of American Travel Writers.