The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh traces its origins back into the eighteenth century with the first publicly recorded explicit reference to its existence in 1735 appearing in the Edinburgh Almanac.

The original course was set out in 1895 on the advice of Old Tom Morris of St Andrews and it remained largely unaltered until 1945 when James Braid was invited to advise on the layout. Former Open Champions Henry Cotton, Peter Thomson, Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Tony Jacklin have all played here at some stage.