Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, (1542-1587), allegedly played golf at Musselburgh in 1567. This claim is apparently derived from a charge that the Earl of Moray put before the Westminster Commissioners in the ‘Articles’ in 1568. He accused Mary of playing golf at Seton House only a few days after the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley, in which he claimed she was implicated. The original Seton home (above), now destroyed, was 4 miles east of Musselburgh and it is possible that Musselburgh would have been another place where she played golf. It is likely she played golf, or else the charge would have had no credibility.

Tradition has it that Queen Mary Stuart once lost a golf match to Mary Seton, whose family home was the Seton House above, and afterwards the Queen presented Mary Seton with a necklace as a reward. Mary Seton, was one of the Queen’s three ‘ladies-in-waiting’, who were all called Mary. Mary Seton was a tall woman and was a life-long friend of Mary Stuart.  In 1811, (Royal) Musselburgh Golf Club made arrangements for the first recorded women’s golf competition.

Mary’s son James VI also reputedly played at Musselburgh, prior to journeying south to become James I of England in 1603.

There is definite evidence that Sir John Foulis of Ravelston, an Edinburgh lawyer who kept copious records of his golf on Leith Links, also played golf at Musselburgh in 1672. He lost in a match with his friends Gosford and Lyon and others as his notebook records:

In November 1728, Duncan Forbes, President of the Court of Session and ‘eminence grise’ of the Leith golfers, played golf at Musselburgh with his son. He recorded the event with the regret that he wished his son were as good at anything else as he was at golf.

Musselburgh Old Course Medal Day with former clubhouses and Arthur Seat in background

The Old Links at Musselburgh was originally seven holes, with an eighth added in 1832 and final ninth in 1870, called the ‘Sea Hole’ and now played as the fifth. The present Musselburgh course is claimed to be the oldest layout in the world, and others appears to yield to this claim.

One of the early mechanical devices for making standard sized golf holes was purchased by the (Royal) Musselburgh club in 1829 from Robert Gay for £1-0-0. (One pound, no shillings and no pennies). This size was adopted as the standard size for a golf hole in 1893.

Several clubs have played at Musselburgh. Notable among them are four below who all built clubhouses there.  They formed a greens committee, paying roughly according to the number of their members. (In brackets below are the average memberships in late 1880s). The map above shows the relative location of the clubhouse buildings which they built and which still exist. Click pictures for larger images.

Royal Musselburgh GC Old Clubhouse 9 Balcarres Rd

The Royal Musselburgh Golf Club (90 to 136 members) played at Musselburgh from about 1760 until 1925. They first occupied a clubhouse inside the course and then in 1873 the moved to 9 Links Place (now 9 Balcarres Road, shown above).  A few years after the Honourable Company decamped to Muirfield, they took over their clubhouse at No 8 (below) in 1908 until Royal Musselburgh moved to Prestongrange House in 1925.

 Hon Company of Edinburgh Golfers Old Clubhouse 8 Balcarres Rd

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (400 members) played at Musselburgh from 1836 to 1891, when they moved to Muirfield further east. In 1865 they built a clubhouse at 8 Links Place (now 8 Balcarres Road, shown above). This is now a children's nursery.

Bruntsfield Links GS Old Clubhouse Mill Hill

The Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society (130 members) began using Musselburgh from 1839, retaining their old clubhouse at Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh.  From 1869 they used the vacated St Peter's Episcopal Church, since destroyed.  Then, in 1886, they built the clubhouse shown above in Mill Hill. They departed back to Davidson’s Mains in the west of Edinburgh in 1898, barely ten years after building the Mill Hill clubhouse. The building is now the Wiremill Social Club and has been extensively refurbished inside following a major fire a few years ago.

Former Burgess clubhouse 10 Balcarres Rd now occupied by Musselburgh Old Course Club

The (Royal) Burgess Golfing Society (100 members) opened a new clubhouse at 10 Links Place (now 10 Balcarres Road pictured above) in 1875 and moved back to Barnton in west Edinburgh in 1895. The building now serves as the clubhouse of the Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club who purchased it in 1993.

In 1874, the ‘Open’, which had first been first held at Prestwick in 1861, was held at Musselburgh, after the Honourable Company became involved in its organisation with Prestwick and St Andrews.  It was held there five more times in 1877, 1880, 1883, 1886 and 1889. The last of these was won by the legendary Willie Park Jnr, a Musselburgh man. He and other notable Musselburgh golfers are honoured on a plaque on the former Burgess clubhouse.

You can join Musselburgh Old Course either a course member or club member and, if you live abroad, as an overseas member with playing rights, (see ‘Club Membership’).

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