St Andrews has three parallel medieval streets — North Street, Market Street and South Street — converging on the cathedral. The castle is on the cliff to the north, the Old Course at the western end. Everything is a short, flat walk apart.
1 St Andrews Cathedral and St Rule’s Tower
Founded in 1160 and consecrated in 1318 in the presence of Robert the Bruce, this was the largest church ever built in Scotland. It was abandoned after the Reformation and quarried for stone, but the surviving gables and precinct wall above the harbour are deeply impressive. The older St Rule’s Tower, 33 metres high, can be climbed for the best view of the town.
Practical: The grounds are free and open daily. A small charge covers the museum and the tower (check whether the tower is open — access has been restricted at times for masonry inspections). Allow 1 hour.
2 The Old Course and the links
Golf has been played on these dunes since at least the 15th century. The first tee and eighteenth green lie right at the edge of town below the clubhouse of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club; a public path leads to the little stone Swilcan Bridge, on which every great golfer has posed. Next door, the R&A World Golf Museum tells the story of the game, and the Himalayas putting green lets anyone play for a few pounds.
Practical: Free to walk; the whole course is open to walkers on Sundays. Museum: paid entry, about 1½ hours.
3 St Andrews Castle
The bishops’ castle stands on a rocky promontory north of the cathedral. Its grim highlights are the bottle dungeon, hollowed out of solid rock, and the mine and counter-mine dug during the siege of 1546–47, which you can scramble through — a rare surviving example of medieval siege warfare.
Practical: Paid entry (Historic Environment Scotland); a joint ticket with the cathedral is available. Allow 1 hour.
4 The university and the old town
The University of St Andrews threads through the town. Step into St Salvator’s Quadrangle on North Street and St Mary’s College off South Street, look for the initials “PH” in the cobbles where the reformer Patrick Hamilton was burned in 1528 — students avoid stepping on them — and walk out along the stone pier, as red-gowned students traditionally do on Sundays.
Practical: Free. 1 hour. Quads are open in daytime; be considerate during term.
5 West Sands
A broad, firm beach stretching nearly two miles north from the Old Course, backed by dunes. The opening scene of Chariots of Fire was filmed here. It is a fine place for a walk at any season and for a bracing swim in summer.
Practical: Free. 15 minutes’ walk from the town centre; car park behind the dunes.
6 The East Neuk villages
South of St Andrews, the coast road links a chain of former fishing ports. Crail has the most photographed harbour in Fife; Anstruther has the Scottish Fisheries Museum, boat trips to the seabird colonies of the Isle of May and famously good fish and chips; Pittenweem still lands fish and fills with artists each August; St Monans and Elie have beaches and a windmill. The Fife Coastal Path joins them all.
Practical: Half a day to a day. Bus 95 runs along the coast from St Andrews roughly hourly; Crail is about 25 minutes away.
7 Falkland Palace
A Renaissance hunting lodge of the Stewart monarchs, beloved of Mary, Queen of Scots, in a handsome village under the Lomond Hills. The gardens contain the oldest real-tennis court in Britain still in use, built for James V in 1539. The village doubled as 1940s Inverness in Outlander.
Practical: Paid entry (National Trust for Scotland); usually open March to October. Allow 1½ hours. About 35 minutes’ drive from St Andrews.
8 The Forth Bridge and Dunfermline
At the southern edge of Fife, the cantilevered Forth Bridge of 1890 — a World Heritage Site — carries the railway from Edinburgh across the firth beside two road bridges; North and South Queensferry have the best viewpoints. Nearby Dunfermline Abbey holds the tomb of Robert the Bruce.
Practical: Bridge viewpoints are free; trains from Edinburgh cross the bridge on the way to Leuchars. Abbey: paid entry.
Guided tours: St Andrews & Fife
Guided walk from €16 St Andrews: Top Sights Guided Walking Tour
Ninety minutes round the cathedral ruins, the castle, the university quads and the Old Course with a local guide.
Guided walk from €24 St Andrews: Golf Origins and Old Course History Tour
A walk around the first and eighteenth holes, the Swilcan Bridge and the R&A clubhouse with the story of how the game began here.
