The Thistle Country Club

The club was established in 1815 and played on Leith Links with the Leith Golfers who would become the Honourable Company of Edinburgh golfers based at Muirfield. The Golfers Yearbook of 1866 reported of the Thistle Club that This Club was established in 1815, and was in active operation for 15 years up to 1830. After having been in abeyance for 36 years, it was resuscitated on 5th April, 1866. The members have a commodious Club-room, and the game has made great progress since Spring; the resident professional being Willie Dunn, whose services the Club was fortunate enough, to secure. Its most important accomplishment was that in 1824 it published a rule book with an extensive introduction on golf history, which they termed as “some historical notices relative to the progress of the game of golf in Scotland.” Significantly, then history documents the origins of ball games, which with the related technology of the leather bound ball, known as the feathery, was key to golf development.