Gilmore Place drill hall

The drill hall was designed as the headquarters of the 4th Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Scots[1] by connecting several 19th century houses and adding a hall behind them in around 1907.[2] This unit became the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots, in 1908.[2] The battalion was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to Alexandria and then to the Western Front.[3] The 5th and 6th battalions, both heavily depleted, were amalgamated in July 1916, and spent the remainder of war on the Western Front as the 5/6th. After the war, the 6th Battalion remained in Belgium until January 1919 when it moved into Germany, and was reduced to a cadre in October 1919 and sent home to be disbanded.[4] After the war the battalion formed a battery in the 57th (Lowland) Medium Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery based elsewhere in the city. The drill hall instead became the headquarters of 2 (Scottish) General Hospital and of 155 (Lowland) Field Ambulance.[5] These units evolved to become 50 (Scottish) Casualty Clearing Station in 1967 and that unit amalgamated with other units to form 205 (Scottish) General Hospital in 1967.[6]

After the Edinburgh detachment of 205 (Scottish) General Hospital moved out to the Granton Square drill hall in the late 1990s,[7] the Gilmore Place drill hall was decommissioned and, although the hall itself was demolished, the houses that formed the frontage of the property were returned to residential use.[2]

• Paterson, Robert H. (2000). Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard: a History of the First or the Royal Regiment of Foot. Edinburgh: The Royal Scots History Committee. ISBN 0-9540906-0-8.