The traditional ‘foundation’ date of the Society (shown on its crest) is 1761, when the members played over Bruntsfield Links with the ‘Edinburgh Burgess Golfers’ (now The Royal Burgess Golfing Society) in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The bulk of the membership, like that of the Burgess, were Edinburgh merchants.

This specific date derives from a club Minute of 1790 proposing and adopting the new club logo and motto ‘Inde Salus’ as suitable for a society that was more than 30 years old. The first five minute-books to 1874 are now missing, but this minute was one of those published by Robert Clark in his golf history book of 1875, reproduced here.

The minutes also show Mr Brown had been trying to get the crest and motto adopted since at least 29th November 1788, when he previously presented it to the meeting.

In his preamble to the Bruntsfield Links Society section of his book, Mr Robert Clark comments that “The first Minute-Book in the possession of the Club dates from 1787, in which year the Club underwent conversion from a Society to a Club, whatever that may mean”.  His first extracted minute is reproduced here.

As stated above, Bruntsfield Links was shared with the ‘Edinburgh Burgess Golfers’ and both clubs once met in the establishment of a golf clubmaker Thomas Comb, ‘Wright and Burgess’.  This building known as Golfhall or sometimes Foxton no longer exists, but was probably to the left of the Golf Tavern in the picture below.

From about 1788, the Bruntsfield Links club used the premises at 30-31 Wrights Houses, known today as The Golf Tavern, as their clubhouse. The building itself probably dates from late 18th Century and is the oldest clubhouse building still standing, used as a club meeting place until 1890, even after the Bruntsfield club left for Musselburgh.

Bruntsfield Links GS Old Clubhouse Bruntsfield

Several club-mistresses are known, including Mrs Henderson, Mrs Gilchrist and Mrs Stewart. The building was remodeled to the current ‘façade’ in 1893-1899 by RM Cameron, who also designed the present Burgess clubhouse. The Bruntsfield club’s locker room is believed to be the room on the first floor, accessed via the staircase on the right hand side.

The first Bruntsfield Captain was Mr Hepburn, who was elected 'nem con' in 1793 and who was given a Caddie, clothed at the expense of the Society.

The Bruntsfield Links club always acknowledged the Burgess as the older club. For example, on 25th April 1818, the Bruntsfield formally presented an invitation to the Burgess for an annual match and conceded that the Chairman at the gaming dinner afterwards would be the Captain Duncan of the Burgess, as captain of the ‘senior’ club, with the Bruntsfield’s Captain Gardner acting as Croupier. This invitation is recorded by both clubs, though much more fully by the Bruntsfield, as reported in Robert Clark’s book. The Bruntsfield society detail the invitation and explain the subsequent match on 4th June 1818, was to mark the opening of the sixth (and last) hole at Bruntsfield Links, to be called the Union Hole in commemoration of the goodwill between the two clubs. The Bruntsfield Society won.

There is suggestion there was a previous match on 25th May 1803, but only a dinner is recorded in the Bruntsfield minutes and thus the first confirmed inter-club match is that of 1818 mentioned above.

The Society’s oldest medal is the Golf Medal played for since 1819.

In 1839, Bruntsfield moved to the course beside the racetrack at Musselburgh, which had eight holes at that time. The members had been going to Musselburgh for many years. They often played matches and dined with the (Royal) Musselburgh. Some of the Bruntsfield members did not want to move as there was initially no clubhouse for the Bruntsfield at Musselburgh, so arrangements were made to continue to use the clubhouse facilities at 30-31 Wrights Houses.

The club celebrated its centenary in 1861 in the Freemason’s Hall, Edinburgh, with the Lord Provost and several other dignitaries as honoured guests. At the dinner, the Bruntsfield Captain Josiah Livingston claimed that the Bruntsfield and Burgess had originally been one club, but had split over political differences of opinion in the aftermath of the Glorious ’45, the rebellion of 1745, which had divided Scotland.

Bruntsfield Links GS Old Clubhouse Musselburgh

In 1869, Bruntsfield took over St Peter’s Episcopal Church (now destroyed) as their Musselburgh clubhouse. Later in 1886 they built a clubhouse in Links Place, shown above, not far from the clubhouses of the Honourable Company, the (Royal) Musselburgh and the (Royal) Burgess. The Bruntsfield plaques over two of the windows are shown below. The left is BLGC (Bruntsfield Links Golf Club) and the right is the an crest and motto. For 30 years therefore the Bruntsfield were unique in having two clubhouses, as they had kept their lease on the tavern at Bruntsfield Links itself.

However Musselburgh was also becoming crowded and in 1897, negotiations were concluded with the Maitland family to feu (lease) land at Barnton Gate, now Davidson’s Mains, in west Edinburgh. Bruntsfield then commissioned Willie Park Jnr, a Musselburgh man and Open Champion, to lay out a course, which was opened in 1898. The clubhouse has incomparable views of the Firth of Forth.

Details of the playing the course in non-peak hours are available from the official website of the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society.

More details of early golf on Bruntsfield Links

More details of early golf at Musselburgh

Accommodation in Edinburgh