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.

History

A Pictish stronghold probably stood on the site of St Andrews, and tradition declares that Kenneth, the patron saint of Kennoway, established a Culdee monastery here in the 6th century. The foundations of the little church dedicated to the Virgin were discovered on the Kirkheugh in 1860. Another Culdee church of St Mary on the Rock is supposed to have stood on the Lady's Craig, now covered by the sea.

Related Topics:
Kennoway - Culdee

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At that period the area had the name of Kilrymont (from the Gaelic 'Cill Rimhinn': "the church of the King's Mount") or of Muckross. Another legend tells how Saint Regulus or Rule, the bishop of Patras in Achaea, was guided hither bearing the relics of Saint Andrew. The Pictish king Angus Macfergus gave him a tract of land called the Boat Chase, no doubt the Boar hills of the present day, and the name of the spot was changed to "St Andrews", the saint soon afterwards (747) becoming the patron saint of Scotland.

Related Topics:
Gaelic - Saint Regulus - Patras - Achaea - Saint Andrew - Pictish - Angus Macfergus - Patron saint

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St Andrews is said to have become a bishopric in the 9th century, and when the Pictish and Scottish churches merged in 908, the primacy was transferred to it from Dunkeld, its bishops becoming thereafter known as bishops of Alban. It became an archbishopric during the primacy of Patrick Graham (1466 - 1478). The town was created a royal burgh in 1124.

Related Topics:
Dunkeld - Burgh - 1124

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In the 16th century St Andrews functioned as one of the most important ports north of the Forth and allegedly had 14,000 inhabitants, but it fell into decay after the Civil War. Daniel Defoe says that when he saw it one-sixth of its houses were ruinous and the sea had so encroached on the harbour that it was never likely to be restored; but the slight improvement in trade and public spirit which Bishop Pococke seemed to detect in 1760 continued throughout the 19th century.

Related Topics:
Forth - Civil War - Daniel Defoe - Bishop Pococke

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