The estate built on land originally belonging to Bruntsfield House is called Marchmont, which the Warrender family began feuing in 1872.

The original name for the area was "Brounysfelde" or Brown's Fields, after the owner of Bruntsfield House, built on a pocket of land granted by the Crown within the Burgh Muir.

A note in appendix 2 (number 1878) of the Great Seal of Scotland, 1306–1424, records a 1381 charter from the reign of Robert II which grants to William Lauder the lands of "Burrowmure in Edinburghshire", which had previously belonged to Richard Broun of Boroumore.

Sir Alexander Lauder of Blyth, Provost of Edinburgh, acquired from his father, Sir Alexander Lauder of Haltoun, Knt., in August 1497 "the lands of Brounisfeld, with the manor-house and gardens, park, herbarium, etc., except for one perticate of land at the east end, adjoining the ditch thereof, in the common muir of Edinburgh."

He sold Brounisfield to George Warrender of Lochend – then Baillie (councillor) and afterwards Lord Provost of Edinburgh – in July 1695, and that family were still in possession in 1900.

The carriage drive from Whitehouse Loan which swept round the now demolished Victorian wing and along the Lime Walk to the stables with their own entrance close to the twentieth century putting green.

The Links continue north east to Melville Drive where they meet The Meadows, a park formed after the old Burgh Loch was finally drained in the 19th century.

The junction where Bruntsfield meets Burghmuirhead on the road to Morningside is popularly known as "Holy Corner" from its cluster of Victorian churches.

Because Muriel Spark, the author of the novel, was a Bruntsfield resident, one of the opening shots in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie shows the title character setting out for school from her home at Admiral Terrace.

Bruntsfield is home to the character Isabel Dalhousie in The Sunday Philosophy Club series of books by Alexander McCall Smith which includes The Right Attitude to Rain and The Careful Use of Compliments.