St. Andrews

Cabinet 15

St Andrews (Scottish Gaelic: Cill Rìmhinn) is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle, and during the years before the Scottish Reformation, it served as the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland.

The University of St Andrews is the oldest in Scotland, dating back to 1410. Both the cathedral, the largest in Scotland, and St Andrews Castle, which overlooks a small beach called Castle Sands, now lie in ruins.

Today St Andrews has a population of about 17,000, making it the fifth largest settlement in Fife.

One modern claim to fame is that the city is known worldwide as the ‘home of golf’, with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club established as early as 1754.

‘St. Andrews’, Fife. From John Parker Lawson’s Scotland Delineated. London: Day and Son, 1858.