Saint Andrews Travel Guide

Principal town of the East Neuk of Fife, famous for Golf (Old Course and Royal and Ancient Club House).  This town is a mecca for golfers worldwide, with many worldclass "Links" style courses, excellent hotels for every level of luxury and budget, top quality restaurants.  The town is brimming with golf shops, and hosts a very interesting Golf Museum.  St. Andrews is also in its own right a beautiful and compact seaside town perfect for family holidays with two huge sandy beaches, a small but beautiful harbour, and a ruined castle and cathedral both dating from St.Andrew's place as a centre of the Catholic church in Europe pre Reformation.  Also one of the main stomping grounds of John Knox during the reformation.  The history of the town is there to explore, every corner you turn..the castle contains one of the best examples in europe of a bottle dungeon and of a mine and counter mine, and even a very drafty toilet!!  The catherdral was once the largest standing building in Europe, still impressive in ruins, and boasting more than a few ghosts...for more fun discovering St.Andrew's past you can spend an hour or so exploring the castle visitor centre and the town museum.  The catherdal also hosts a little known but excellent collection of pictish carved stones of the best quality, and you can climb to the top of St.Rule's tower for a stunning panoramic view stretching as far as the Angus coastline and Ochil hills.  Other places of interest are the excellent little sealife centre where the whole family can easily spend several hours exploring exhibits on the local fishes, monsterous moray eels and cute seals.  Round the beaches, and within easy walking of the town centre you will find many playparks, and a beautiful walk along the Lade Braes, and within a relaxed half an hour's walk an impressive Botanical gardens including tropical and desert greenhouses, and excellent collections of plants from all over the world. The town centre is compact and beautiful, but parking can be tricky in summer so maybe make use of the carparks beside the bus station or the local park and ride.  The buildings of the town centre are typical of Scotland's East coast during Georgian and Victorian times, with some dating back further to the late medieval period, plenty of interesting architecture, several interesting churches, and countless little details if you look up as well as down, small closes, lanes and wynds.  The town is great for shopping, whether self catering, souvenir shopping or looking for a taste of scottish cuisine, design, textiles or tartan.. you could even buy yourself a full kilt outfit!  Home to one of the UK's oldest and most prestigious universities, St.Andrews also enjoys a rich and varied cultural life, with Scottish Chamber Orchestra concerts, a small rep company based in the Byre Theatre, a forward looking Crawfords Art Centre and a town centre brimming with book shops (and also a very healthy pub life to keep locals, tourists and students alike in good spirits).  There is also a charming little independent cinema, dating back to the days of gas lintels but now fully modernised with three digital theatres and a weekly changing program of current hit films, including matinees for kids.  In the weekend of the first Tuesday in August (usually around the 8th) there is a two day street fair with market stalls and white knuckle rides, also with plenty fun try your luck stalls and rides for the kids and kiddies.  Every year the University students put on a street parade in honour of Kate Kennedy, this varies in quality from year to year according to the dedication of the students but is usually quite amusing to watch.  St.Andrews is surrounded by beautiful arable farmland, a gently undulating landscape in a patchwork of colours according to the season of the farming year, and is in close proximity to the Loch Leven nature reserve, the Cupar Deer Park, Craigtoun Country Park, Tentsmuir forest, and the small picturesque coastal villages of the East Neuk of Fife, also half an hour from Dundee, city famous for Jute, Jam and Journalism and now a vibrant city recently rejouvenated. Accomodation in the town is plentiful, tourism being the town's main industry, ranging from worldclass luxury hotels, through many B&Bs to the caravan park with stunning views out over the cliffs and sea at Kinkell braes.  You can get to St.Andrews by road, an hour and a half's drive north east across Fife from the Forth bridge, an hour and a half's drive south from Aberdeen.  There is a railway station at Leuchars junction with a regular and reliable taxi service, a 20 minute drive through the beautiful Fife countryside into the town centre, or for those willing to "rough it" with the locals, a regular and speedy bus service into St.Andrews bus station in the centre of town.

St. Andrews is a beautiful and traditional 'city' on the East coast of Scotland. It's city status is qualified by the ruined cathedral at the bottom of North Street. St. Andrews is basically three main streets and the connecting roads to these. 15th century University buildings feature throughout the city and there are laws governing the height and style of buildings, so it remains old-looking and pretty.

St. Andrews is the home of golf, with the world's first golf course, which hosts the famous Dunhill Cup championship. At this time of year you might catch a glimpse of some visiting celebrities.

There are lots of historic and scenic sites to visit in and around St. Andrews...Castle, Cathedral, Pier, Beach, sand dunes, University buildings, museum etc etc. St. Andrews has a large ratio of pubs and restaurants to other buildings so it's very easy to eat and drink here! The nightlife is bustling (with students) until about midnight, with more than 15 pubs to choose from across three streets. The student union is open later than this but only for students and their guests.

There are plenty of hotels and B&Bs but they are pricey! At the top end are the Golf Hotel (500 pounds a night rings a bell from when I was a student 7 years ago!). There are cheaper B&Bs in the nearby villages of Pitenweem and Anstruther.

St. Andrews is a little off the beaten track and doesn't have it's own railway station so the best bet is to train/fly to Edinburgh and get a coach (2 hours) or train and then a bus from Leuchars train station to St. Andrews. The bus station is very close to everything you would want to see in St. Andrews.

Walk along Hadrian's Wall from the Cragg Lough site.