The Edinburgh Town Guard was formed in 1682 to carry out the function of a local police force. The Town Guard consisted of three equally large companies, each with a lieutenant at its head. The were generally responsible for keeping order and would beat their drums through the Old Town at eight o'clock as a kind of curfew.
According to one contemporary writer, ranks were composed mainly of 'old Highlanders, of uncouth aspect and speech, dressed in a dingy red uniform and cocked hats, who often exchanged the musket for an antique native weapon called the Lochaber axe'. The 'uncouth' nature of their speech may well have been nothing more than native Gaelic, not an unreasonable preference in an 'old Highlander'. The Town guard was not taken particularly seriously and by the time it was disbanded in 1817, it had become 'an unfailing subject of mirth to the citizens of Edinburgh'.
The town Guard had their base in a 'long, low, ugly' building on the north side of the High Street, opposite the Tron church. A wooden horse was kept outside the building and this was used as an unusual punishment for people found drunk and disorderly: they would be made to sit for a length of time on the horse with heavy muskets attached to their feet.
The Guard House was demolished in 1785 and the Town Guard moved to the Tolbooth.
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