Bruntsfield Links is of open parkland in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, immediately to the south-west of the adjoining

Meadows A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifici ...

. Unlike The Meadows, which formerly contained a loch drained by the end of the 18th century, Bruntsfield Links has always been dry ground. It is the last vestige of the

Burgh Muir The Burgh Muir is the historic term for an extensive area of land lying to the south of Edinburgh city centre, upon which much of the southern part of the city now stands following its gradual spread and more especially its rapid expansion in th ...

, former woodland which stretched southwards to the

Jordan Burn The Jordan Burn, is the name of a stream, now culverted for much of its course, that runs through the Victorian suburb of Morningside in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was until 1856 the southern boundary of the city and county. It is a tributary of ...

at the foot of the slope now covered by the built-up areas of the

Grange Grange may refer to: Buildings * Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906 * Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682 * Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery Geography Australia * Grange, South Austr ...

and Morningside. The woodland was cleared in accordance with a decree of James IV in 1508, much of the wood being used to build timber-fronted houses and forestairs in the

Lawnmarket The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), des ...

and

West Bow The Grassmarket is a historic market place, street and event space in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, well below surrounding ground levels. Location The Grassmarket is located direct ...

area of the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

Golf on the Links

" Links" is a Scots word for land associated with the game of golf. Originally meaning open sandy ground "usually covered with turf, bent grass or gorse, normally near the sea-shore", as at

Leith Links Leith Links ( gd, Fìghdean Lìte) is the principal open space within Leith, the docks district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park is divided by a road into two main areas, a western section and an eastern section, both being largely flat ...

Lundin Links Lundin Links is a small village in the parish of Largo on the south coast of Fife in eastern central Scotland. The village was largely built in the 19th century to accommodate tourists visiting the village of Lower Largo. Lundin Links is cont ...

, the word came to mean any ground on which golf was played and is now often used for modern golf courses. A

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

plaque states that Bruntsfield Links are one of the earliest known locations where the game was played in Scotland, but it is unclear precisely when. The Golf Tavern which stands on the west side of the Links claims to have been established in 1456, although there is no evidence for this other than an unsupported statement made in ''A history of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society'', now known as The Royal Burgess Golfing Society. Bruntsfield links, Edinburgh, 2

After James IV's Charter of 1508 allowed the Town Council to feu portions of the

quarriers began extracting sandstone from the Links. By an Act of Council dated 25 December 1695 lessees were granted the liberty of choosing "an aiker" on any part of the Links for a quarry, "the said aiker always being at ane distance from the place where the neighbours play at Goulf". Robert Chambers mentions golf being played on the Links at the time of a well-known local incident which he implies took place in the reign of Charles II, although the internal evidence points more to the later " Killing Time" of the 1680s. This would make it contemporaneous with the famous game of golf played by the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...

and John Patersone on Leith Links in 1682 (see Timeline of golf). By the middle of the 18th century the area to the west of Bruntsfield House was regarded as the "city quarry", from which, for example, stones were taken in 1740 to build the city's Charity Workhouse at Bristo. A history of the area relates how, "The vacant intervals etween the quarry holesthen became utilised by the citizens in pursuit of the popular game of golf, the quarries with their mounds of debris acting in place of the usual bunkers." When the Warrender family of Bruntsfield applied to acquire ground between the nearby quarry and their property the Council approved, deciding that "the giving of the feu of the same could in no degree be hurtful to the Exercise and Diversion of the Golff". In 1752, however, an anonymous pamphlet warned against further encroachments, arguing that "the greatest Part of the Sheep Pasture will be cut off, and the Inhabitants deprived of Ew Whey

ewe's milk Sheep's milk (or ewes' milk) is the milk of domestic sheep. It is commonly used to make cultured dairy products such as cheese. Some of the most popular sheep cheeses include feta (Greece), ricotta (Italy), and Roquefort (France). Sheep breeds S ...

], which is often prescribed and contributes much to their Health, and is easily got, because of the Nearness of the Town; and Tender People will be deprived of these Walks and retired Places which the playing at Golf hath rendered absolutely necessary, and the only places to retire to when the Golfing Green is full of Golfers." Bruntsfield Links in 2009

The pursuit of golf was a major factor in preserving the Links as an open space. In 1791, it was proposed to drive a straight road across them (to link present-day Home Street to the crest of the hill at present-day Church Hill), thus bypassing the little village of Wrightshouses (roughly on the site of present-day Leven Street). The proposers argued that the existing road constituted "the worst and most inconvenient of all the entries into Edinburgh...which must always be the case while it is carried through so narrow and a dirty a village inhabited by so many low people". The proposal was, however, successfully blocked by the Burgess Golfing Society which used the Links and the road re-routed to circumvent them. This resulted in the demolition of houses on the west side of the village, but spared those on the east side, where a terrace retains the name in the form "Wright's Houses". A request made to the council by

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy'' ...

in 1798 (before his fame as a novelist), that the volunteer cavalry regiment of which he was quartermaster should be allowed to train on the Links, based on the traditional right to muster troops there, was rejected. The Council cited the position taken by the golfing societies as the reason. The city currently boasts more than twenty-one golf courses, one of which is home to the Royal Burgess Golfing Society founded in 1735 and the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society founded in 1761. These Societies moved from the Links to Musselburgh in 1874 and 1876 respectively, and then to a newly laid out course at Barnton on the north-western outskirts of the city in 1895 and 1898.

Recreation

The area is a favourite spot for dog-walkers and becomes an overspill area when crowds gather in the Meadows during warm Summer weather. The west section of the Links next to Whitehouse Loan, where a former school building (the original Boroughmuir School, later James Gillespie's School for Girls) has been converted to a

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Hall of Residence, also attracts crowds in good weather. It is frequently used by historical re-enactment societies as a practice ground. A children's playpark and the lawn of the Edinburgh Croquet Club are situated close to the Barclay Viewforth Church. The raised ground in front of Warrender Park Terrace is a good vantage point for viewing Festival and New Year fireworks from the Castle, and during winter snowfalls the north-facing slope here becomes a popular sledging ground for children. A footpath and cycle lane connecting Bruntsfield to Middle Meadow Walk provide all those living in the area with a shortcut and quick route to the university buildings around George Square. There are also many local businesses, including the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative, which attract visitors. The Golf Tavern pub sits to the west of the links.

Botanical

An early attempt to remove some of the trees from the Links was blocked in one of the first campaigns of the city's conservation body, the

Cockburn Association The Cockburn Association (Edinburgh's Civic Trust) is one of the world's oldest architectural conservation and urban planning monitoring organisations, founded in 1875. The Scottish judge Henry Cockburn (1779–1854) was a prominent campaigner t ...

. Over the years, however,

Dutch elm disease Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease was accidentally introduced into America, Europe, ...

has taken a gradual toll of trees in the area, with the most recent outbreak occurring in 2011. Among notable surviving elms (2019) are four old Exeter Elms in the southernmost corner (Bruntsfield Crescent), well-grown

Huntingdon Elm Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

s at the start of Whitehouse Loan, and a rare ''Ulmus minor'' 'Umbraculifera Gracilis' in front of the Links Hotel in Alvanley Terrace. Diseased elms have been replaced by the disease-resistant hybrids ''Ulmus'' 'Regal' and ''Ulmus'' 'Columella'.'Regal' in Edinburgh: nomorepencils.com/dutch-elm-disease-in-edinburgh/; fombl.org.uk/nl4.pdf; fombl.org.uk/nl5.pdf File:EdC-BL-1989-12-A.jpg, ''Ulmus minor'' 'Umbraculifera Gracilis', Bruntsfield Links, 1989 File:Ulmus minor 'Umbraculifera Gracilis', Edinburgh, October 2014.jpg, ''Ulmus minor'' 'Umbraculifera Gracilis', Bruntsfield Links, 2014 File:EdC-BL-1989-05-A.jpg, Grafted ''Ulmus'' × ''hollandica'' cultivar, Bruntsfield Links, 1989 File:Ulmus glabra (possibly 'Insularis').jpg, Fastigiate

wych elm ''Ulmus glabra'' Hudson, the wych elm or Scots elm, has the widest range of the European elm species, from Ireland eastwards to the Urals, and from the Arctic Circle south to the mountains of the Peloponnese and Sicily, where the species reaches i ...

, Bruntsfield Links, 2016

References

External links

History of Bruntsfield Links

Paul Sandby, ''Horse Fair on Bruntsfield Links'', 1750Bartholomew's ''Chronological map of Edinburgh'' (1919)
{{Parks and gardens in Edinburgh, state=collapsed Parks and commons in Edinburgh Areas of Edinburgh Sports venues in Edinburgh Sports venues completed in 1695 1695 establishments in Scotland Golf in Edinburgh

Golf on the Links

Recreation

Botanical

See also

References

External links