St Andrews

Named after Saint Andrew, the Royal Burgh of St Andrews is a coastal town in Fife, Scotland, and the home of golf. It has a population of about 18,000, and stands on the North Sea coast between Edinburgh and Dundee. It is home to Scotland's oldest university, the University of St Andrews.

Buildings

Cathedral

The cathedral originated partly in the priory of Canons Regular founded by Bishop Robert (1122 - 1159). At the end of the 17th century some of the priory buildings remained entire and considerable remains of others existed, but nearly all traces have now disappeared except portions of the priory wall and the archways, known as the Pends.

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Bishop Arnold (1159 - 1162) founded the cathedral in order to supply more accommodation than the church of St Regulus afforded. Of this church in the Romanesque style, probably dating from the 10th century, there remain the square tower, 108 feet in height, and the choir, of very diminutive proportions. On a plan of the town from about 1530, a chancel appears, and seals affixed to the city and college charters bear representations of other buildings attached.

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The building, finished in the time of Bishop Lamberton (1297 - 1328), was dedicated on 5 July 1318 in a ceremony witnessed by Robert Bruce. When intact it had, besides a central tower, six turrets, of which two at the east and one of the two at the west extremity, rising to a height of 100 feet, remain. A fire partly destroyed the building in 1378, and the restoration and further embellishment were completed in 1440. It was stripped of its altars and images in 1559.

Related Topics:
5 July - 1318 - Robert Bruce - 1559

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About the end of the 16th century the central tower apparently gave way, carrying with it the north wall. Afterwards large portions of the ruins were taken away for building purposes, and nothing was done to preserve them until 1826. Since then it has been tended with scrupulous care, an interesting feature being the cutting out of the ground-plan in the turf. The principal portions extant, partly Norman and partly Early Scottish, are the east and west gables, the greater part of the south wall of the nave and the west wall of the south transept.

Related Topics:
Nave - Transept

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St Rule's tower

St Rule's tower is located on the cathedral grounds but predates it. Originally, the tower was part of a church built (c. A.D. 1127) to hold the relics of St. Andrew. St. Rule (also know as St. Regulus) is credited with having brought the relics of St. Andrew to the area. Today the tower commands a beautiful view of the town, harbor, sea, and surrounding countryside.

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Castle

The picturesque ruins of the St Andrews castle stand on a rocky promontory much worn away by the sea. Bishop Roger supposedly erected it about the beginning of the 13th century as an episcopal residence, strongly fortified. English invaders frequently captured it, and after its recapture by the Scottish regent, Andrew Murray, in 1336 - 1337, it was destroyed lest it should fall into their hands. Towards the close of the century Bishop Trail rebuilt it in the form of a massive fortification with a moat on the south and west sides. James I spent some of his early years within it under the care of Bishop Wardlaw, and it was the birthplace of James III 1445. From a window in the castle Cardinal Beaton witnessed the burning of George Wishart in front of the gate (1546), and in the same year a party of Reformers murdered Beaton within it. The castle was taken from the conspirators by the French, among the prisoners captured being John Knox.

Related Topics:
St Andrews castle - Andrew Murray - James I - James III - 1445 - Beaton - George Wishart - 1546 - Reformer - John Knox

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Some years afterwards Archbishop Hamilton repaired the castle, but in less massive and less substantial form. By 1656, however, it had fallen into such disrepair that the town council ordered the use of its materials in repairing the pier. The principal remains are a portion of the south wall enclosing a square tower, the "bottle dungeon" (so named from its shape: it was a cell hewn out of the solid rock below the north-west tower), the kitchen tower and a subterranean passage, the work of sappers during a siege from 1546 to 1547 that was later filled in, only to be excavated in the 19th century for tourism. The grounds now form a public garden.

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Parish Church of the Holy Trinity

Bishop Turgot founded the town church (officially known as the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity) in 1112. The early building was a beautiful Norman structure, but at the close of the 18th century the whole, with the exception of little else than the square tower and spire, was re-erected in a plain and ungainly style. In this church John Knox first preached in public (May or June) 1547, and in it, on 4 June 1559, he delivered the famous sermon from St Matthew xxi. 12, 13, which led to the stripping of the cathedral and the destruction of the monastic buildings. The church contains an elaborate monument in white marble to James Sharp, archbishop of St Andrews (assassinated in 1679).

Related Topics:
Turgot - 1547 - 4 June - 1559 - 1679

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The church was heavily restored in the early years of the 20th century. The pulpit is partly made from Iona marble. Holy Trinity Parish Church has a congregation of the Church of Scotland.

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The town also has other churches, including Church of Scotland congregations (St Leonards, Martyrs' and Hope Park), two Episcopal congregations, a Baptist church, a Roman Catholic church, the Salvation Army and some independent congregations.

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Chapel of the Blackfriars

In South Street stands the lovely ruin of the north transept of the chapel of the Blackfriars monastery founded by Bishop Wishart in 1274; but all traces of the Observantine monastery founded about 1450 by Bishop Kennedy have disappeared, except the well.

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