St Andrews – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

Today we decided to spend the day exploring the Kingdom of Fife, which stretches from the Firth of Tay down to the Firth of Forth in the South.  Our first stop was the University town of St Andrews, whose most famous students must surely be Prince William and Kate Middleton – one of the coffee shops in the town claims they met there!   St Andrews, known as the home of golf, sits on the coast and the university there is the third oldest in the UK.  The town is very pretty with medieval streets and a lovely feel to it – we really enjoyed our time there.   The Waterstones here is in an attractive stone building and opened as an Ottakar’s in 2004 before they were bought out.

St Andrews University

West Port and Pends Gate

St Andrews used to have several Gates, or Ports as the old Scots word would have it.  Two remain today, West Port (originally called So’gait Port) which is, as the name suggests, to the West of the town, and Pends Gate to the east.

St Andrews Cathedral

The Roman Catholic cathedral was the largest in Scotland.  It was destroyed during the Reformation in 1559.

Below – clockwise from top left:  College Street, Blackfriars Chapel, North Castle Street, St Andrews Castle