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Bruntsfield, Edinburgh — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Bruntsfield is a residential quarter of southern Edinburgh, wrapped around the shops and tenements of Bruntsfield Place. Its open northern edge is Bruntsfield Links, a broad public green that gives the area both its name and its air. Independent shops, tea rooms and long tenement terraces set the tone. It stays quiet. Yet the centre of Edinburgh lies barely a mile downhill.
About Bruntsfield
Where to stay in Bruntsfield
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Staying in Bruntsfield puts a visitor in a calm residential pocket rather than the tourist core, which suits anyone who wants evenings well away from the crowds. Most beds here are guesthouses and flats on or just off Bruntsfield Place, so the choice runs smaller than in the centre. The trade-off works in the mornings.
Bruntsfield Links is on the doorstep, and the walk into town takes well under half an hour. For a wider range of hotels, look to central Edinburgh, a short bus ride north.
About Bruntsfield
What are the main landmarks in Bruntsfield?
The neighbourhood's own landmark is Bruntsfield Links, a broad public green along its northern edge. Golf came early here. A short-hole course still runs across the grass, and players have used the Links for generations.
From there the greenery carries straight on into The Meadows, a long open stretch of parkland beside the tenements. The other draw is Bruntsfield Place, lined with independent shops and cafés.
What is the history of Bruntsfield?
In feudal times Bruntsfield fell within the barony of Colinton, on the southern approaches to the old city. Its Links began as common muir land, where the town once grazed its animals and mustered its men for war. Golf followed.
A short-hole game has run across Bruntsfield Links for generations. The tenement terraces and shopfronts of Bruntsfield Place came later, laid out by nineteenth-century builders who gave the quarter its settled residential character.
Where is Bruntsfield?
The neighbourhood lies about a mile south of Edinburgh's centre, strung along Bruntsfield Place as it rises toward Morningside. Bruntsfield Links forms its open northern boundary and runs straight on into The Meadows. Marchmont sits across the green to the east.
Downhill to the north lies Tollcross; Merchiston closes the neighbourhood off on its western side. The core is small.
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Updated July 2026