Near this spot from 1675 to 1763 was the Edinburgh Physic Garden, originally founded at Holyrood in 1670 by Sir Robert Sibbald and Sir Andrew Balfour, Two of the founders of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The garden, under the control of James Sutherland the first Regius Professor of Botany in the university, was the direct predecessor of the present Royal Botanic Garden.