St. Andrews, Scotland: Much More Than Golf and Royal Romance

Like most people, I had heard of St. Andrews, Scotland, primarily for two reasons: its legendary place in the history of golf and its rather more romantic claim to fame as the university town where Prince William met Kate Middleton. Beyond that, I knew remarkably little about the place.

So when our travels through Scotland provided an opportunity to visit a beloved niece who is attending university there, I was delighted to finally see it for myself. What I hadn’t expected was to fall quite so completely under the spell of this delightful little town.

And little it is! With a population of roughly 20,000 permanent residents, St. Andrews feels more like an especially charming village than a university town with an international reputation. Its narrow streets, centuries-old stone buildings, little independent shops, and dramatic setting overlooking the North Sea give it an almost storybook quality. Add thousands of university students wandering about, and you have a place that manages to feel both wonderfully historic and remarkably youthful.

A Little History Before We Begin

St. Andrews has been an important place for far longer than golfers have been chasing little white balls across its famous links.

Its history stretches back more than a thousand years, when it became one of Scotland’s most important religious centers. According to legend, relics of St. Andrew, one of Christ’s apostles and Scotland’s patron saint, were brought here, eventually giving the town its name. By the Middle Ages, St. Andrews had become the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, attracting pilgrims from across Europe.

The ruins of its once-magnificent cathedral, begun in the 12th century and consecrated in 1318, offer a glimpse of just how important this little town once was. It was the largest church ever built in Scotland, a remarkable distinction for a place that today can be crossed on foot in a matter of minutes. The Scottish Reformation in the 16th century brought an end to much of the town’s religious prominence, leaving behind the atmospheric ruins that visitors see today.

Then there is the university.

Founded in 1413, the University of St. Andrews is Scotland’s oldest university and the third oldest in the English-speaking world, after Oxford and Cambridge. Think about that for a moment. Students were attending classes here more than a century before Columbus sailed to America!

Today, the university enrolls more than 10,000 students, a remarkable number in a town of this size. Depending on how you count the population, students make up roughly a third or more of the people living here during term time. And they come from around the world, giving this ancient Scottish town a decidedly international character.

The university also has a wonderful collection of traditions, some dating back centuries, others more recently invented by students themselves. Academic gowns, ancient courtyards, cobblestone streets, and buildings that look as though they were designed for a Harry Potter film are all part of everyday life here.

It is hard to imagine a more magical place to spend one’s university years. And, as we were about to discover, our niece has taken full advantage of it.

Our Very Own Student Guide

Normally, when we arrive in a new town, one of our first activities is to book a walking tour, either through a local guide company or GetYourGuide. We find these tours invaluable for getting our bearings, learning a bit of history, and discovering places we might otherwise overlook.

But this time we had something much better: our niece, who after three years at St. Andrews has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of the town, or at least the parts that matter most to a university student!

Over the next four hours, we enjoyed a wonderfully personal tour that focused far less on the usual tourist attractions and much more on the quirky little places, favorite haunts, and student traditions that she has discovered during her years here.

Of course, we visited her dormitory, wandered through the university’s historic courtyards, and saw the buildings, both ancient and modern, where she attends classes. But it was the unexpected discoveries that made the day so memorable.

A Library, a Bookshop, and a Little Surprise

My mother was a librarian for part of her life, and somewhere along the way I developed a personal tradition of visiting the library in nearly every town we explore. It is my small way of honoring her memory, and I have discovered some remarkable buildings as a result.

The University of St. Andrews library was certainly a surprise.

Imagine wandering through a town filled with handsome 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, directly opposite a university courtyard that looks straight out of Hogwarts, and suddenly encountering a massive, five-story Brutalist building of concrete and glass.

It is quite a jolt!

At first glance, particularly from the main entrance, the library seems wildly out of place. What on earth was the architect thinking?

But then we walked around the building toward the side facing the sea, and I began to appreciate what the architect had been trying to accomplish. From that perspective, the building is surprisingly elegant, with its broad expanses of glass and strong horizontal lines. It is still unapologetically Brutalist, but there is a certain grace to all that concrete and glass.

I can’t say I would have chosen it for the middle of St. Andrews, but I came away with a grudging admiration for it.

For those who prefer to purchase their books rather than borrow them, our niece introduced us to the utterly charming Topping & Company Booksellers, a place she apparently haunts whenever her student budget allows. What a treasure!

This is the sort of bookshop that makes you want to cancel your afternoon plans and spend several hours browsing. Beautifully arranged shelves, an astonishing selection of titles, little nooks for exploring, and that wonderful atmosphere of a place run by people who genuinely love books.

One display particularly caught our attention: a collection of books labeled “Blind Date with a Book.” Each was wrapped in plain brown paper, concealing its title and cover, with only a few clues about what might be inside. The idea, of course, is to choose a book without knowing exactly what you are getting. How wonderfully British!

Only in the UK, where we have repeatedly encountered an extraordinary devotion to books and reading, can I imagine such a thing flourishing. It is about as far removed from the impersonal, transactional experience of buying a book on Amazon as one can get.

And while our niece was distracted, we surreptitiously purchased a £50 gift certificate and slipped it into her pocket without her noticing. She didn’t discover it until the day after we left.

That’s what uncles are for!

Golf, Golf, and More Golf

Of course, one cannot write about St. Andrews without mentioning golf, even if, like us, you have never quite understood the appeal of spending several hours trying to hit a tiny ball into an even tinier hole.

St. Andrews is known throughout the golfing world as the “Home of Golf,” and with good reason. Golf has been played on the links here for more than 600 years, and the famous Old Course is widely regarded as the spiritual home of the game. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, founded in 1754, became one of the sport’s most influential institutions, helping establish the rules and traditions that shaped modern golf.

The Old Course has hosted The Open Championship more times than any other course, and its famous 18th hole, with the iconic Swilcan Bridge nearby, is practically sacred ground to golfers.

The sport is also a major economic engine for this small town. Visitors come from around the world, many willing to spend extraordinary sums on hotels, restaurants, golf outings, and all the paraphernalia associated with the game. Along with the university, golf supports a remarkably sophisticated hospitality industry for a town of this size.

We happened to arrive during a celebrity golf tournament, which initially had us quite excited. Perhaps we would find ourselves rubbing shoulders with a Hollywood star or one of those marvelous British actors whose faces are familiar from television and film.

Well, not quite.

It turned out that many of the celebrities attracting the greatest attention were famous golfers, people whose names meant absolutely nothing to us but who clearly inspired near-religious devotion among the other guests. We watched in amusement as one after another entered a room, heads turned, conversations stopped, and phones emerged for selfies.

We smiled politely and pretended to know who they were.

And the town certainly misses no opportunity to remind visitors of its golfing heritage. Even the coat hooks in our hotel room were fashioned from the heads of golf clubs!

Subtlety is apparently not a requirement when it comes to celebrating golf in St. Andrews.

Dinner with a View, and a Discovery Upstairs

We asked our niece to select a nice restaurant for our dinner together. Given her generally financially prudent student lifestyle, we were pleasantly surprised when she suggested Rusacks, one of the town’s most elegant hotels.

Rusacks occupies a prime position overlooking the Old Course, just beside the famous 18th hole. It is a handsome, historic hotel that has been thoroughly updated, combining traditional Scottish character with a contemporary, golf-inspired style. Its location alone makes it something of a landmark.

We ate in the ground-floor dining room, which overlooks the course. It was an elegant but relaxed setting, with good food and a wonderful view of the golfers making their way toward the final hole.

After dinner, however, we decided to investigate something we had heard about: a rooftop terrace overlooking the course. And that is when we discovered where all the action really was!

Upstairs is 18, the hotel’s spectacular rooftop restaurant and bar, a dramatic space with dark wood paneling, fireplaces, and an open kitchen where flames leap around enormous cuts of meat being prepared over fire. The atmosphere is lively and sophisticated without being stuffy, and the views over the Old Course and the North Sea are absolutely outstanding.

There is also an outdoor terrace, where you can look directly over one of the most famous stretches of golfing real estate in the world.

Our insider tip: If you are planning a meal at Rusacks, consider booking 18 rather than the more obvious ground-floor dining room. Go for lunch or an early dinner, particularly in autumn when darkness comes early, so you can fully appreciate those extraordinary views.

Even for non-golfers like us, it is a memorable experience.

Toasties, Farm-to-Table Charm, and Tiramisu Through a Window

One of the unexpected pleasures of St. Andrews was discovering just how interesting its restaurant scene has become.

For a town this small, it has an impressive collection of places to eat, ranging from inexpensive student favorites to sophisticated restaurants catering to well-heeled visitors and golfers with seemingly unlimited budgets.

We were particularly fond of a little beachside shack on the edge of town, the sort of wonderfully informal place where you order a toasted sandwich, or “toastie” as the British call it, and enjoy it in the fresh sea air. Our niece assured us that these were among the best toasties in town, a claim that apparently carries considerable weight in the student community.

And she was right. There is something particularly satisfying about a delicious, generously filled toasted sandwich enjoyed beside the sea, especially in Scotland, where a brisk breeze makes hot food all the more appealing.

Another favorite was 5 Acres, a tiny, charming café with a farm-to-table philosophy and an emphasis on fresh, thoughtfully prepared food. It has that wonderfully personal quality that makes you feel you have discovered a local secret rather than a restaurant designed for tourists. Small, unpretentious, and full of character, it was exactly the sort of place we love finding on our travels.

But perhaps our favorite culinary discovery was the tiramisu window at the front of the elegant Amber restaurant. Yes, a tiramisu window!

Rather than committing to a full restaurant meal, you can stop at the window and purchase a serving of that most glorious of Italian desserts to take away.

Naturally, we felt obliged to investigate.

And then investigate again.

And perhaps once more, just to be certain of our opinion.

We developed a little ritual of buying our tiramisu and carrying it across the street to a small park, where we could sit and enjoy it while watching the world go by. Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the most memorable.

A Seaside Sauna, a Famous Cat, and a Student Superstition

One of the great advantages of having a university student as your guide is discovering places and traditions that rarely make it into the usual tourist itineraries.

Among these was the seaside sauna, a wonderfully Scottish interpretation of the increasingly popular Nordic sauna experience. Imagine sitting in a cozy, wood-heated sauna overlooking the North Sea, then stepping outside into the brisk coastal air. For the truly brave, there is the possibility of plunging into the chilly water.

We were content to admire the concept, though I must admit the setting was spectacular. There is something very appealing about the contrast between the warmth of the sauna and the wild, windswept Scottish coastline.

Then there was Hamish McHamish.

Hamish was a long-haired ginger cat who became something of a local celebrity by wandering freely through the shops, streets, and university buildings of St. Andrews. Although he belonged to a local family, he apparently considered the entire town his personal domain.

Over the years, Hamish became so beloved that he inspired a book, attracted an international following, and eventually earned the ultimate honor: a bronze statue in the center of town. Imagine that. A cat with his own public monument!

Hamish died in 2014, but his statue remains a much-loved local landmark. In a town filled with monuments to saints, scholars, and golfing legends, I found it rather wonderful that one of its most affectionately remembered residents was a wandering ginger cat.

Our niece also introduced us to one of the university’s more peculiar traditions involving the initials “PH” set into the cobblestones near St. Salvator’s Chapel.

The initials commemorate Patrick Hamilton, a young Scottish scholar and early Protestant reformer who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1528. According to university superstition, any student who steps on the initials risks failing their degree.

The remedy, should you accidentally tread on them, is rather more dramatic than simply crossing your fingers. Tradition calls for a student to plunge into the North Sea at dawn during the annual May Dip, an event that has become one of the university’s most cherished rituals.

Watching students carefully avoid stepping on those two letters, nearly five centuries after Hamilton’s death, was a wonderful reminder of how seriously university traditions can be taken, even when they are completely irrational!

A Few Practical Tips

One small warning for visitors accustomed to relying on Uber: there are no reliable Uber services in St. Andrews.

We learned this the hard way.

After requesting a car through the app, we watched it cheerfully search for a driver. And search. And search.

Twenty minutes later, still without a match, we finally asked the concierge at a nearby hotel what was going on.

“Oh, there aren’t any Ubers here,” he explained, before kindly calling us a local taxi.

It would have been useful to know that twenty minutes earlier!

Another tip, particularly for travelers like me who enjoy compensating for restaurant indulgences with a visit to the gym or a good lap swim: St. Andrews has a surprisingly good public leisure center.

The swimming pool is excellent for laps, the gym is perfectly respectable, and visitors can purchase a day pass at a very reasonable price. After several days of Scottish restaurant meals and more than our fair share of tiramisu, I was delighted to discover it.

Leaving a Little Envious

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to St. Andrews and continue our travels north into the magnificent Scottish Highlands, which deserve an entirely separate blog.

But we left with far more affection for this little town than I ever would have expected.

St. Andrews has all the ingredients of a memorable destination: a fascinating history, extraordinary architecture, a dramatic seaside setting, excellent restaurants, wonderful bookshops, and just enough eccentricity to make it thoroughly endearing.

Yet what made our visit truly special was seeing it through the eyes of our niece.

I couldn’t help feeling enormous admiration, and more than a little envy, for this young woman who had the courage to leave her small Colorado hometown, travel halfway around the world, and begin a completely new chapter of her life at one of the world’s most historic universities.

In the process, she has discovered not just a remarkable place to study, but a country and a community she has come to love. She may not meet and marry a prince here, as Kate Middleton did. But from everything we saw, her experience at St. Andrews has been no less magical.