Royal Burgess Golfing Society

The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh, founded 1735, is the fourth-oldest organised golf club in the world. The first three — Honourable Company at Muirfield, the Royal and Ancient at St Andrews, and the Royal Musselburgh — sit in the same conversation. Royal Burgess is the lesser-known of the four, partly by choice. The club doesn't do publicity. It barely does a website.

The current course at Davidson's Mains, just west of central Edinburgh, was designed by Tom Morris and revised by James Braid. It is a tree-lined parkland of roughly 6,500 yards, with two burns crossing the fairways and greens that have been maintained to championship standard for over a century. Conditioning is regularly cited as among the best in Edinburgh — better, locally, than anywhere on the Edinburgh Leisure roster.

Visitor access exists but is limited. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays only, with phone-ahead booking required. £80 weekday, £120 weekend. Handicap certificate required. The clubhouse is restrained, traditional, and entirely lacking in tartan tat — exactly the establishment a 290-year-old society would run.

Worth playing for the history alone, even before the golf. Pair it with Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society (the second-oldest still-active club, two miles west) for a day of pre-1750 Scottish golf institutions. The two clubs together form a quieter, more genuine pilgrimage than the obvious Old Course route.