About St Andrews
The history, geography, and character of St Andrews.
History & Heritage
A cathedral city reduced to ruin
St Andrews grew up around what was once Scotland's largest cathedral, founded in 1160 and reduced to the ruin seen today by the Reformation of 1559. St Andrews Cathedral, once Scotland's ecclesiastical capital, is free to walk, alongside the older St Rule's Tower. A short walk further along The Scores stands St Andrews Castle, a ruined clifftop bishops' residence with a walkable 16th-century siege mine, together forming the town's historic east end where three ancient streets converge on the cathedral ruins.
Scotland's oldest university and the Home of Golf
The University of St Andrews, founded in 1410-1413, is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world, and it shapes the town's rhythm as much as golf does, with roughly a third of the town's population made up of staff and students in term time. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, founded in 1754, governed the rules of golf worldwide until 2004, and the town-owned Old Course, bought by St Andrews in 1894, remains the game's most recognisable ground and the most frequent home of the Open Championship, next returning in July 2027.
The harbour, the beach and the town today
Away from the golf and the University, St Andrews is a genuine small Scottish town of around 18,000 people, with a working harbour and pier below the cathedral, where the student Pier Walk tradition takes place on Sunday mornings, a long sandy beach at West Sands used in the opening scene of Chariots of Fire, and a medieval street plan of North Street, Market Street and South Street still converging on the cathedral ruins at the town's historic east end.
Wildlife & Nature
Marine Life
Grey seals
Grey seals are regularly seen hauled out on the sandbanks around the Eden Estuary just north of St Andrews.
Regularly seen year-round; no specific peak season independently confirmed this session
Bottlenose dolphins
Bottlenose dolphins from the Firth of Tay and Moray Firth populations are occasionally spotted further out in St Andrews Bay.
Sightings are occasional and not guaranteed on any given visit; no reliable seasonal pattern independently confirmed this session
Birdlife
Wading birds at the Eden Estuary
The Eden Estuary, a Local Nature Reserve and Ramsar wetland site just north of St Andrews, is an important site for wading birds.
Year-round