Tag: St Andrews

My last full day in Scotland on this particular trip involved a day trip from Edinburgh to Anstruther and St Andrews with a stop in Falkland. I had been to St Andrews several times before, but only passing through, with just a half hour or an hour to spend there. This time I would have about three hours.

Whenever heading north from Edinburgh the route goes through South Queensferry as both the rail bridge and a couple car and truck bridges take folks across to the other side of the Firth of Forth. The Queen in question was Saint Margaret, consort of King Malcolm Canmore. This time, when we stopped, I zoomed in with my camera on the rail bridge and caught a train on its way to Inverness. I think sometime I should take the train from Edinburgh to Inverness just so I can ride across that bridge.

Founded as a fishing village in 1225, Anstruther (pronounced like “ANN-stir”) is now a resort village on the north coast of the Firth of Forth where it meets the North Sea. It is a pretty little village that can be walked from end to end without much effort.

Anstruther is another British place name that illustrates how British English and American English can be slightly different. There is Belvoir Castle, which is pronounced “Beaver” (don’t ask). Leicester Square in London = “Lester”. Southwark Cathedral = “SUTH-erk”. One of my favorites isn’t a place — it is just the British word for aluminum, which is aluminium (“al-u-MINI-um”).

We were dropped off at a spot where we could use restrooms and get some coffee. We would be picked up at the other end of the main road bordering the water in about 45 minutes. I had plenty of time to walk around, explore and take photos.

When we got to St Andrews, we were given the choice of being dropped off at one of three places – the main street in town, the Old Course, or the Cathedral. We would be picked up at the in town drop off spot in three hours, so we were all shown where that was first. Then we drove over to the Old Course.

The public cn have lunch at the Clubhouse. It isn’t necessary to be a member. There is a museum a short distance from there. A ways across the course is the hotel where a lot of the golfers who come to play stay. It also isn’t necessary to be a member to play the course, but there is a long wait for a tee time. So advanced planning is necessary.

Several people jumped off at the Old Course. The rest of us headed off to the cathedral. There were only three of us that got off there. The others were apparently going into town for lunch first.

I had never had time to visit the cathedral. On the other trips to St Andrews we had been dropped off at the Old Course and had to hot foot it at a sprightly pace down the road to the castle. I could only gaze at the cathedral longingly from the road next to the castle. So this trip, it was my first priority.

St Andrews Cathedral was built in the 12^th century and was ransacked and ruined during the Scottish Reformation in the 16^th century. The grounds over which the ruins are scattered are quite extensive. Many people have been buried there throughout the centuries. Some of the tombstones depicted the person buried beneath as a golfer. What a place for a lifelong golfer to be buried!

After I took all the photos I wanted, I headed over to the town to get some lunch. Since we had had our lunch stop in St Andrews on the first day of the Scottish Castles Experience tour, I had learned about the main drag of St Andrews and had a pretty good idea of the pubs along the road.

I had been to a pub down closer to the fountain in the middle of the road, but didn’t want to go too far that way since I wanted to visit the castle after lunch. The road to the castle was fairly close to where I had come out of the cathedral grounds. So I opted for the first pub that looked welcoming and had an open table.

One of my favorite pub lunches is a ploughman’s lunch which includes bread, cheese, usually some sort of pate or ham, and maybe a hard-boiled egg. If they don’t have a ploughman’s lunch, I will often get fish & chips unless they have something else interesting like bangers & mash (sausage and mashed potatoes), toad in the hole (sausage baked inside of some Yorkshire pudding), Scotch eggs (soft-boiled eggs wrapped in sausage meat and bread crumps and deep fried), or Welsh Rarebit (a cheese toast usually made with sharp cheddar and a spicy mustard). I know. Healthy dining! That’s why I like to get the ploughman’s lunch. It is the least of all evils.

I do like to eat in pubs because they are much cheaper than restaurants and take much less time to get your food. You also order at the bar, so no waiting on the server to come around. And you usually pay when you order, so can leave when done instead of waiting for the bill. It is plenty of food for me too.

Sometimes I will do a café, especially one in a museum or other attraction that I am visiting (such as the one at Holyrood Palace). I prefer to eat the local cuisine, so I tend to avoid American fast food shops unless I am really pressed for time and/or desperate.

The particular pub I chose had a board outside that said they had a ploughman’s lunch. So I ordered that and a half pint of local Scottish dark ale. They served grape jelly with the meal. It was not to spread on the bread, but to eat with the pate. The first time that happened years ago I thought that it would most likely be disgusting, as peanut butter and liverwurst had been (which was a common sandwich on offer at several sandwich shops). But I was wrong. It was delicious.

Now well fortified, I headed for the castle. I had made a hurried tour of the castle several years before when I had an hour total in St Andrews. This time I wanted to take the trail down to the water’s edge. Then I would see how much time I had left to tour the castle again before I needed to be at the pickup point.

I often overestimate how much time something will take, especially since I have fairly short little legs. But I can get those stubby limbs in gear and cover a lot of ground quickly. More than one tour director has commented on how fast I can move. I think it’s because of having to spend so much of my life keeping up with people much taller than me.

I got to the top of the trail quickly (even with stopping to take a couple photos on the way) and headed down, knowing it would take longer to get back up the trail than down it. Fortunately it wasn’t too steep. It was also worth it. I loved the photo of the castle with a couple of the university buildings behind it.

The castle had been built in the 12^th century for the bishops of St Andrews Cathedral. Cardinal David Beaton had the protestant preacher George Wishart burned at the stake in front of the castle in 1546. There was a marker in the street just before reaching the trail down to the beach.

Later in the same year, the Cardinal was murdered and his body hung out of the castle window. The Protestants were in control of the castle, but not for long. A French fleet bombarded the castle with enough canon fire to render it defenseless and it has been a ruin ever since.

When I came back up from the beach, I found I still had plenty of time to visit the ruins. So I paid the fee and went in to see the bottle dungeon.

Located in the northwest tower of the castle, the bottle dungeon was shaped like a bottle, with a narrow opening at the top through which the prisoner was lowered. One prisoner was even Archbishop Patrick Graham who was imprisoned in his own castle when he was judged to be insane. It is also said the body of Cardinal Beaton was stored in a chest of salt in the bottle dungeon during the siege of the castle.

I had timed my walk to the castle from the main road and so knew how long the return trip would take me. But the pickup point was a fairly long haul down South Street in front of Madras College (one of the colleges of St Andrews University). So once I had looked down into the bottle dungeon, gazed out at the sea, and climbed up on a part of the walls that was still standing, I headed back along the castle road and then down South Street.

I arrived at our rendezvous with about 15 minutes to spare, so I crossed the street to the place advertising ice cream and purchased a double scoop cone to savor as I sat on the low wall and waited for the tour coach. As others in the group arrived and asked where I had gotten my ice cream, I pointed them in the shop’s direction. By the time our chariot arrived, nearly all of us had ice cream.

On the way back to Edinburgh, we had a stop at Falkland in front of Falkland Palace. Our driver/guide told us we had time to tour the castle if we wanted, so I decided to buy a ticket and see it again. I really liked that castle.

This time, we were on our own instead of being taken around by a guide who explained everything. I was still regretting that we couldn’t take any photos. But I got a really good look at everything by being decisive and ending up first in line. That way there weren’t a lot of people in the room with me. They also took longer because they would stop and read the signs telling them what the room was and some history. Most of the time, I had whatever room I was in to myself.

When I got back to Edinburgh, I decided to stop in at the private bar in the hotel just for guests. I had a drink called a Strawberry Whisky Smash, which contained Dewars blended Scotch, strawberry, lemonade and mint. My second drink was a French Martini. This consisted of vodka, Chambord, and pineapple juice. Then I picked up a sandwich in the shop next door to the hotel and packed up to be ready to leave for the London train the next day.

Next time – return to London and spend time wandering around the Covent Garden area.

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