St. Andrews, Scotland.  (May, 2022).

ScotRail’s half price sale made a day trip to St. Andrews super affordable, though our choice of trains was somewhat limited. 

We took the 9:30 AM train from Edinburgh Waverly to the train station at Leuchers, where we hopped on a local bus for the 10 minute ride to St. Andrews, arriving shortly before 11:00 AM.  Our return trip was at 7:15 PM, getting us back to Edinburgh about 9:00 PM.

St. Andrews is basically a small college town with a top tier university and world renowned golf course.  As a college town, it has a lot of bars.  As the home of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, it has golf tourists galore.

We first walked to central St. Andrews and looked for a place to eat before exploring the area.  We decided on the Criterion Bar for breakfast, as it was before noon.  Lunch menus were not yet an option.  The breakfast sandwiches at the Criterion Bar were very good and quite large.

Next we headed towards St. Andrews Cathedral, which is temporarily closed for a restoration project.  It’s basically just ruins and a cemetery.  Down a short hill from the cathedral is the pier and St. Andrews beach.  Even though the weather was damn near perfect for sightseeing (mid-60s, mostly sunny, light wind), it was too cold to get near the water.  I doubt we would ever find the water tolerable.  Still it was nice to view.

Turning around we went up the other side of the hill past St. Mary’s Church (a/k/a St. Mary on the Rock), also ruins.  A walking path along cliffs overlooking the sea took us to St. Andrews Castle.  Yes, it is also ruins and temporarily closed for a restoration project.  But the visitor center and gift shop are open.

It sure does not take long to see everything in a small town where the major monuments are closed.

Along with several other tourists we walked through St. Andrews University.  I suppose students there are used to visitors strolling around aimlessly taking photos.

Finally in early afternoon we made it to the Old Course at St. Andrews Links, probably the most famous public golf course in the world.  With an official handicap card (36 maximum), you can enter a ballot (lottery) for a tee time.  Ballots run year round, two days in advance of the requested tee times. Golfers walking through town carrying their clubs to the course are a pretty common sight. Six other links golf courses run by St. Andrews Links allow online tee time bookings well in advance. 

Preparations were well underway for the 150^th Open to be held in July.  Numerous structures were being erected for the tournament.  White temporary tents filled every available space.  Grandstands were already up on the 17^th and 18^th holes.

After a short visit to the Old Course Shop, we walked the length of the 18^th hole from the green to the Swilken Bridge.  The only thing separating the golf course from the street is a wooden railing about two feet tall.  The Swilken Bridge is maybe 20 yards from the road, if that.

Near the bridge were groups of tourists standing off to the side of the course waiting for a chance to rush out between groups to take photos.  Apparently tourist photos on the Swilken Bridge are a common practice. 

I explained to Stephanie that this is a very famous vantage point in the world of golf, looking down the 18th fairway, over the Swilken Bridge and towards the green.  She didn’t care.  It was mid-afternoon and time for a break.

We ventured over to Café in the Square for an afternoon sugar rush of cokes and pastries.  I had a fruit scone with butter and raspberry jam (probably my third or fourth during the trip) and Stephanie got a slice of lemon poppy cake.  After thirty minutes or so we were recharged and ready to visit some stores.

St. Andrews has a lot of charity linked thrift stores – the British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, Salvation Army, Cancer Research UK, and Save The Children – to name a few.  I think we went into all of them, looking for nothing in particular, as well as a few bookstores. 

We made it until almost 4:00 PM before heading to the nearest bar, The Rule, to order a couple of Tennant’s.  One benefit of liking the locally brewed lager is that we found it on tap almost everywhere.   

Instead of eating dinner at The Rule we decided to try somewhere different, the St. Andrews Brewing Company.  Unfortunately for us this place did not serve either Tennant’s or good appetizers.  After a couple of craft beers and mediocre appetizers (the wings were mediocre and the jalapeno poppers completely botched), we headed back to The Rule for another round of Tennant’s and some nachos.  

Shortly before 7:00 PM it was time to walk back to the bus station and commence our return journey to Edinburgh. 

It sure is nice traveling on trains and busses where we can actually read and understand the signs.

Garrett and Stephanie

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