St Andrews - Historical sites

Fife holiday 2026 #11

The plan for the final day of our holiday was to walk from St Andrews to Kingsbarns, a distance of some 7 miles across quite remote country (lots of golf courses again!). I and a couple of friends decided we'd rather spend the day in St Andrews, a university town with a wealth of interesting sights. So we hopped on the bus. I still walked more than 5 miles around the town, so I did get a good workout albeit at a slower pace, with more coffee! 

The bus station was near to the West Port, a gate into the town built in 1589, designed to impress visitors, which it still does I guess. 

My first port of call was the ancient cathedral, now a ruin. I was rather disappointed in it, to be honest, mainly because the grounds were covered in temporary and unsightly metal fences. These have been erected around gravestones and monuments that are judged to be unstable (most of them, in fact!). It seems they are waiting for the relevant families to pay for repairs... but I guess in many cases there is no family left. The dominant structure is St Rule's Tower, part of the original St Rule's Church that preceded the cathedral. Built in the 1100s, it drew pilgrims to the shrine of St Andrew. The Cathedral, consecrated in 1318, was the most important church in medieval Scotland. Part of the grand west entrance still survives. 

There's the foundations of a Cloister and a Chapter House, where the canons would meet to do church business. Several of the priors were buried under its floor and today you can see some of the medieval, stone coffins.

Next stop for me was the harbour, not large by the standards of some we'd already visited but an important presence to the south west of the town. 

Then I meandered along the seafront, passing St Andrews Castle. Destroyed and rebuilt several times during wars between the Scots and the English, it was rebuilt by Bishop Walter Trail in 1400 and became the main residence of the bishops and archbishops of St Andrews and the administrative centre of the Church of Scotland. It was also a notorious prison. It went through many turbulent times, including a siege in the mid 1500s, as a result of the entwining of church and national politics. It was abandoned and finally fell into ruin in the late 1600s. 

Beyond the castle, the seafront road (The Scores) is where many of the university buildings are situated so I wandered along enjoying the grand old buildings and the more modern structures that have been shoehorned in among them. 

 

Kingsbarns to Crail #2

Fife holiday 2026 #10

The beaches had lots of rocky outcrops stretching into the sea so, had we had time, there were rockpools and sandy coves to explore, with all the wildlife, flotsam and jetsam that the tide brings in. 

We saw more eider ducks - quite a little nursery of baby chicks darting around. There were also some shelducks with babies, which were lovely to see. 

When we stopped for lunch I did a bit of beachcombing and found beautifully marked stones - and some sea glass. I was delighted by that, as many times I've searched for it on shores and never found any. There was in fact quite a bit - little turquoise, green and white fragments, softly polished by friction in the sea. Can you spot the tiny piece in the photo? 

Some of the flotsam was less desirable, though I still found a kind of beauty in the tangled ropes and mangled lobster pots. 

Somewhere along the way we passed Constantine's Cave, of historical significance, with ancient carved crosses, Pictish animal symbols, and fragments of Roman glass and pottery discovered inside. Local lore claims that King Constantine I (or II) used the cave or was killed there by Viking raiders in AD 877, though this appears to be a myth. 

And everywhere we saw blue sky, blue sea and colourful flowers. It was a good day. 

Kingsbarns to Crail #1

Fife holiday 2026 #9

The next day was much brighter, a more pleasant day for walking. For logistical reasons, we walked this part of the coastal path in the opposite direction, starting at Kingsbarns and ending in Crail. It was a walk of only about 6 miles, though up and down and scrambly over rocks and sand. Beautiful though. It was a more remote part of the coast with fewer settlements and mostly we were walking alongside golf courses. That was fine apart from the many signs that said 'On hearing a shout of FORE, cover your head and turn away.' Great... except that I was never going to hear anyone shout Fore, was I? (She wondered what the white object flying towards her was... and then it hit her!') Thankfully we all got back unscathed. 

The sunshine made a remarkable difference to the colours and clarity of the sea, and I delighted in the many bright wild flowers we saw along this stretch. 

Scotland's white sand beaches would be a real draw if the weather was consistently warmer. We felt privileged to have them more or less to ourselves! 

 

Anstruther to Crail

Fife holiday 2026 #8

As the light got murkier and the rain got heavier, we were glad to approach Anstruther, the largest of the East Neuk fishing ports. It made its fortune from catching herring but now relies on tourism. The harbour here was filled with leisure boats and yachts. Can you see the rain pitting the water? By now we were pretty soggy so we found a bus shelter large enough to hold all of us while we ate our packed lunches! Not the most salubrious setting but at least we could draw breath and adjust our clothing and damp backpacks. 

Somewhere on the way out of Anstruther, as it segues into Cellardyke, we passed this sculpture of a shoal of fish, crafted in metal by local artist Marion Smith. 

A little further on, one of the small cottages had a lively display of Saltire flags, marking their delight (I guess) at Scotland's place in the World Cup football tournament. 

As we left the villages, the path along the seashore became quite attractive, with lots of wild flowers. These are sea pinks/thrift - so pretty. 

There were some interesting weathered and sea-worn rock formations too, with holes and arches, known as the Caiplie Caves or The Cove. They are said to have links to the monks like St Adrian who had a monastery on the Isle of May, and one of them was home to a hermit prior to WWII.  

Eventually our familiar 'home' harbour at Crail came into view. This part of the coastal path walk from St Monan's to Crail was in total about 8 miles and is possibly one of the more interesting stretches, passing through all the historic fishing villages. The wet conditions made it somewhat less appealing than it might have been so I was glad I'd spent time the day before exploring parts of it in more detail. Ironically the rain eased off as we returned to Crail. Isn't that often the way? 

Some of the larger houses on the cliffs at the west end of Crail had lovely gardens. We enjoyed this riot of lupins, their colours straight out of a paintbox.  

Then a wet day turned into a gorgeous evening, with golden light that gave way to a wonderful sky later in the evening. We watched a big cruise ship coming down the Firth of Forth. I've done a bit of sleuthing and I've discovered it's a Cunard ship, Queen Anne, leaving a stop-over in Edinburgh on a cruise around the British Isles. Hooray for the internet! 

St Monan's to Anstruther

Back to the Fife holiday 2026 #7

The next day's walking promised to be much wetter, so it was on with the waterproofs! It didn't start off too badly, just drizzle, but by lunchtime the rain was pretty heavy. We joined the Fife Coastal Path more or less where the group had stopped the previous day in a village called St Monan's, another of the East Neuk fishing villages. The stocky looking building with the spire to the west of the village is its church, dating back to the 1300s, though it's no longer used for worship. It's known as the closest church to the sea in the whole of Scotland, perched on rocks. We didn't pass it so I didn't get to see inside. 

Along the seashore we skirted one of several tidal swimming pools that seem popular along the Fife coast. I'm not sure that they are all still maintained and used but their outline is clear. 

We passed the sole surviving (restored) windmill in Fife, built in the late 18th century to pump sea water into covered pans (see the ruins below). Coal from the local mine was burned in furnaces to evaporate the water and the salt residue was used mainly for food (fish) preservation. Production ceased in 1820. 

Somewhere along this stretch of coast we saw these vibrant orange rocks. Whether the colour was caused by lichen or by some kind of iron deposit I'm not sure, but they were very striking. 

As we approached Pittenweem along the coastal path we climbed up to a park, which had a small shelter covered in murals of local wildlife and boats. It was chucking it down with rain by this point so my camera was picking up rain spots. I put it away shortly afterwards and started using my phone, which is easier to keep dry! I liked the puffin picture, though I'm not aware that we saw any real ones on our travels. 

Having 'done' Pittenweem the day before, I didn't take any photos here and we didn't linger anyway, trying to make headway in the rain. This picture below is looking back, as we walked on towards Anstruther and Cellardyke.  

Crazy days

I'm interrupting the run of holiday photos just to prove that I'm still alive and functioning in these 'crazy days'. In common with the rest of Europe we've been having a heatwave, with record June temperatures. In truth, Yorkshire has been on the edge of the heat dome and not quite as boiling hot as places in the south of England... but it has still been very hot. 

It's been a battle of ingenuity to keep the temperature and humidity in my flat as bearable as I can. It doesn't get the sun until early afternoon, but then the temperature just climbs and climbs right through to the late evening. It's been up to about 33°C (91.4°F) outside, and very humid. I've managed to keep the flat below 28°C by various ingenious means (screens, fans), but even so that's hotter than I'm comfortable with. I'm now looking into getting a portable air conditioning unit, as these 'crazy days' seem to be increasingly a feature of our warming climate. Everywhere is sold out of them at the moment though! I know compared to the temperatures many countries endure this is really only 'warm' - but not to me! And our UK homes and lifestyles have not yet evolved to take high temperatures into account. Hopefully it is returning to average this coming week. It was more bearable yesterday as there was a strong breeze.

Having said all that, it's been something of a novelty to take a walk before breakfast, when it has been rather cooler and quite pleasant. I do feel I need to continue getting some exercise and I can't do that in the heat of the day. Luckily there is some shade on the canal towpath too, so it's been pleasant to join the dog walkers, school students and commuters on their early morning routes. 

I'm currently reading a book called 'The Walking Cure' by Annabel Streets (appropriate name!), an enjoyable exploration of walking through different landscapes and how they can calm, energise or refocus us.  She has this to say about canal towpaths:  'Unlike any other landscape, canals and their towpaths operate in a liminal in-between place - neither completely natural nor completely man-made, neither all water nor earth, neither strictly rural nor strictly urban. In their melding of brick, water and path with wildlife and wilderness, and as aquatic arteries linking cities with countryside, canals and their towpaths form a uniquely hybrid walking landscape that simultaneously soothes and inspires... Canals exist in a fascinating intersection of past and present, urban and rural, artificial and wild... a waterscape like no other. One that continuously piques and intrigues, offering tantalising glimpses of long lost lives while herons unfold their wings from the bank. No other landscape offers this beguiling blend of industry, history, architecture, water and wildlife, green space and blue space, peace and people.'

And that is exactly why I love my canal walks. 

St Fillan's Cave

Fife holiday 2026 #6

The name Pittenweem comes from the Gaelic, meaning 'place of the cave'. In a sandstone outcrop above Pittenweem harbour, there is a natural cave, probably carved by an underground river thousands of years ago. It is linked to the Irish missionary, St Fillan, who is said to have lived here for several years around AD 640. Inside the Y-shaped cave is a stone altar where pilgrims visit and occasional services are still held.

Fillan is said to have lived in the cave for several years, writing sermons by the light of his luminous left arm! The cave is very dark and damp, so having his own bodily illumination must have been very helpful! 

The cave is next to the medieval wall of Pittenweem Priory, and later the monks carved a stairway and cellar into the solid rock of the cave, linking it to the priory garden. The cave was owned by the Priory from roughly 1221 until 1560, after which it became a fishermen's store and (so they say) a smugglers' hiding place. 

There's a painting in there, depicting St Fillan and another saint. 

The cave entrance is on Cove Wynd, a picturesque lane leading down to the harbour. To gain access, you have to borrow a key from a chocolate shop in the village. The entrance is through a low doorway and there is a small window cut into the rock to admit a little light. These are thought to have been added around 1600. 

The mural on the wall was designed and erected by children from the local primary school. The cave is a fascinating place, though I wouldn't like to have lived in there!