Around St Andrews

Fife holiday 2026 #14

I really enjoyed wandering around St Andrews, fairly aimlessly really, just seeing what I could discover.

There's been a settlement here since the Iron Age but the town really began as an ecclesiastical centre in the 8th century when a monastery was established, holding some relics associated with St Andrew. Construction of the present town began in the 1100s and it became a place of pilgrimage. The university was founded in 1413 and is now ranked consistently among the top five UK universities. The town declined steadily throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and even the university, the third oldest in the UK, was considering relocating. In the mid-19th century, Hugh Lyon Playfair, provost of St. Andrews, was credited with improving the burgh, the University and the Golf Club. Today, St Andrews is served by education, golf, tourism and the conference industry.

The centre is a wonderful mix of old (very Scottish in style) buildings and more modern inserts. It has, effectively, four main streets in parallel, which hold some of the university buildings, the shops, numerous cafés and civic buildings. Many of the university buildings have been renovated, extended or built as new in a pleasingly sympathetic way. I think initially it was a collegiate university like Oxford and Cambridge but now it seems to be managed as one entity, with all its various schools of study. 

It was one of those places where it was worth ambling up little alleyways and through gates; you never knew what you'd find. I discovered this fairly well-hidden quadrangle, St Mary's Quad, with some magnificent trees including the Great Holm Oak, planted in 1740. It's surrounded by lovely old buildings, one of which houses the St James Library. 

There's a statue of Bishop Henry Wardlaw, a founder of the university, beside a ruined arch which was once a boundary gateway c1420.   

Along South Street, I popped in to Holy Trinity Church, some of which dates back to 1412 but most of it rebuilt in 1907. It was a beautiful space, enhanced by the wonderful flower arrangements courtesy of a wedding that had been held that day. The volunteers on duty were very kind and helpful too, so I really enjoyed my visit.

As with most university towns, it has several bookshops, including the magnificent 'Toppings', where I could happily have spent all day browsing. With so many tourists and students, it's not surprising that there are also a huge number of cafés and bars.

Northpoint Café, at the east end of North Street, proudly proclaims that it is 'where Kate met Wills (for coffee)', which presumably is a good recommendation. 

I visited the university museum, the Wardlaw Museum, which has a lot of interesting information about the history of the university, the University's extraordinary art, history, science and natural history collections and the research and inventions that have had an impact on the world. It was modern, well curated and displayed. I enjoyed browsing. Outside there's a statue of St Andrew, attributed to Sir John Steell (1804-1891) and apparently a copy of one in St Peter's Basilica in Rome. 

It's easy to forget that this is a seaside town but the coastal vista from the viewing terrace at the museum was stunning. 

I wish...

I wonder if today's parents of young children realise how lucky they are to have all the child orientated facilities that abound in our local areas? I would have given my right arm, when my daughter was a toddler, for a well-equipped, toddler-friendly playground, or a café where you could happily breastfeed or change a nappy, or a soft-play centre, or the choice of baby classes that nowadays exist - singing, dancing, art, baby signing, story telling and so on. 

I had few friends with young children and when I once tried a local church playgroup it wasn't welcoming. (Even less welcoming to her father, on the days that he was caring for our daughter.) I used to take her to a local carpet shop that, for some reason, had a small ball pool where she would play happily for a while. I used to have to pretend that I was thinking of buying a carpet! 

Eureka, the National Children's Museum, opened in Halifax in 1992 and is wonderful for children (though quite expensive) but by then my daughter was already ten and on the top side, age-wise, to find it interesting. We found things to do, of course, but I used to find the ingenuity required was quite exhausting. Even the museums and galleries we used to visit were not nearly as child-friendly as they seem these days. There were no playrooms or free packs of paper and crayons to play with, as seems standard these days. 

Just locally in Saltaire, two new facilities have opened. The Baby Bean ('where little moments brew big smiles') is 'a calm and welcoming space designed for babies, toddlers and young children, combining imaginative play with a relaxed café environment for parents'. It's even screened from passers-by, to aid the calmness. It has a role-play village and a sensory room to engage the little ones. What bliss! 

Further along the street, Art-K offers art classes and workshops for children (and a few for adults too) to explore their creativity and develop their artistic skills. 

I so wish I'd had access to such things, as a young mum. 

Lollipops

I walk past the Salt Beer Factory several times a week but I can't say I've noticed the 'lollipop trees' before.  Maybe they're new... maybe it's the vibrant red of the new leaves that drew my attention to them... I don't know. Anyway, I liked the effect. I think they're a variety of Pieris, though I didn't know they could be trained into such a shape. (Happily corrected - Photinia Red Robin) 

Seeing things in a different light

The sub-zero temperatures have eased, though it's still quite cold. Tuesday turned out to be a better day than forecast and I longed for a walk. Unfortunately I had to wait at home for a parcel delivery that didn't arrive until late afternoon, by which time it was starting to get dark. I went out anyway. Sometimes it's good to see familiar scenes in a different light. 

Salt Brewery, in what used to be the Edwardian tramsheds built in 1904, looked attractive and inviting with its glowing lights. Though open, at that hour it wasn't exactly busy. 

Sunset was creeping in by the time I got down to the canal, just a gentle glow, not spectacular but still good to see. 

Parts of the canal were still frozen, meaning that some of the ducks were standing on ice and others swimming in the water. That's not something you often see. 

The lights in Saltaire were beginning to come on by the time I reached the village. People were making their way home from work and college, no doubt relieved, as I was, not to be slithering on ice. 

Saltaire at night

Paris by night was wonderful to explore but Saltaire, my home patch, looks equally beautiful at night, particularly in the run-up to Christmas when there are sparkly lights everywhere.

The Victoria Hall is usually floodlit and now there's a Christmas tree on the lawn, oddly wonky at the moment for some reason. Maybe the wind has caught it. Compared with a few years ago, they do make more effort to light it and it looks lovely this year. 

'Don't tell Titus', one of the bars on Victoria Road, is always cosily lit. It used to be much bigger but had a refurb earlier in the year that has reduced it to half its former size. The shop units on Victoria Road do seem to have some difficulty in thriving. Perhaps they have too much competition from the busier bars and restaurants higher up the village on Gordon Terrace. When the students and day visitors go home and Salts Mill closes, this downtown part of Saltaire is a bit isolated. 

Even 'Cultures' looked quiet and that is currently one of the more thriving café bars. 

There are now only two or three actual shops on Victoria Road. RadStudio, which sells gifts and homewares, is bright and welcoming and always decorates the windows for Christmas. 

Sojourn in Paris #4

Paris 2025 - Quintessential Paris 

Compared to the Paris I knew years ago, I couldn't help but think that even this beautiful city has been 'homogenised' or perhaps 'globalised'. At one time, there seemed a clear difference between Paris and London or any other big city. It didn't appear so marked to me any more. It's hard to pick out 'the Parisiens' from the general mass of humanity thronging the streets (and there are so many more people everywhere!) The plentiful local supermarkets had little to differentiate them from our own local ones. 

Nevertheless, there are some abiding distinctive features. Despite the cold and damp weather, the pavement cafés were busy with friends chatting over coffee and pastries. The architecture is distinctive, as are the lovely art nouveau Métro signs designed in 1900 by Hector Guimard, 86 of which survive and are now protected. In the Métro system itself, it becomes quite clear why those now resurgent 'metro tiles' are so called. There are millions of them on walls and ceilings! 

Aside from the supermarket chains - Carrefour, Monoprix and the rest - there are still delightful specialist shops: butchers, greengrocers, flower shops, cheese sellers and of course many wonderful bakers and pastry shops. Close to our accommodation there were two dedicated gluten free bakeries. That was a joy for me, to be able to have delicate pastries (lemony crème pâtissière, in a pastry case topped with meringue - yum!; and a macaron) and slices of delicious bread. ( My photo isn't of the gf bakery but another patisserie.) 

I stopped to photograph this ice cream shop (below), only then noticing the tiled sign above it, a relic of France's colonial past. It depicts a slave serving his master, who sits on sacks of coffee beans. 'Au Planteur' (a planteur being a plantation owner) was a tea, coffee and chocolate shop. The writing under the picture says 'Aucune Succursale', which means 'No branch' - the owner had no other outlets selling his products. The plaque dates from about 1890 and is now a listed, though controversial, monument. 

My daughter took us into 'Merci', a sizeable 'destination' store that sold clothing, homewares and all manner of interesting and trendy things. It had a red Fiat 500 parked in the entrance courtyard. 

Sojourn in Paris #1

Paris 2025 - Julien Bouillon

My daughter and I just spent a long weekend together in Paris, which was a real treat, both to enjoy her company and to explore a city that I have not visited for a good few years. 

We flew from Manchester and, although it's not really that far, it took all day to get there. We got an early train to the airport. There was the usual waiting around pre-flight, then a very long (over an hour) queue at Border Control at Paris CDG, as the EU is introducing a new biometric entry system. Everyone had to get their photos and fingerprints taken (though for some reason they didn't bother with my fingerprints!) Then we had a longish train and metro journey to our accommodation. 

We'd booked an evening meal at a restaurant called Julien Bouillon, which my daughter had spotted online. It was rather an amazing place - and good that we had a booking, since there was a queue of would-be diners outside. It's said to be 'one of the most beautiful restaurants in Paris, if not the world'. It's a wonderfully preserved example of the Art Nouveau style. The building was constructed in 1906 by the French architect Edouard Fournier. It has stunning ceramic tiles and plasterwork, ornate stained glass panels in the ceiling and a beautifully carved mahogany bar. It was decorated by a number of exceptional craftspeople: Armand Segaud (peacock panels), Charles Buffet and Georges Guenne (stained glass), Hippolyte Boulenger (ceramic tiles), Louis Majorelle (woodwork), amongst others.

The four panels of 'flower women' depicting the four seasons, created by master glassmaker Louis Trezel, were inspired by Alfons Mucha's distinctive Art Nouveau designs. The building was renovated in 2018, when they discovered that the original wall colour was céladon green rather than beige, so it has been restored with that colour.

A ‘bouillon’ is a restaurant first created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries serving traditional French cuisine, in particular a ‘bouillon’ (broth). The purpose of the ‘bouillon’ was to serve good quality food at affordable prices. In 1900, nearly two hundred and fifty bouillons could be found in Paris. Today, Julien is one of only a small handful of authentic restaurants of this kind that remain in the French capital. Still very affordable too!

As for the food, well, it was tasty. I just had a main course of smoked pork loin, sauerkraut and potatoes. My daughter enjoyed onion soup and smoked pollock brandade, then we shared a crème brûlée. It was remarkably good value. 

A memorable start to our weekend away! 

Lest we forget

Saltaire's Caroline's Social Club currently has an impressive display for Remembrance Day, with hundreds of knitted poppies and some wooden ones too. It also has symbolic paintings on most of the windows. I don't recall them doing this in past years but I may be wrong. Perhaps it's because it's the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII, and probably one of the last times there will be any actual veterans of that war still alive. They have clearly put a lot of work into it and it's a nice example of community spirit, involving at least one local school too, I think. 

I'm sure most of us won't 'forget', though I can't see it makes any difference really.  There are still wars... seemingly more, and more brutal, than ever... and so much division and hatred seems to be surfacing in our societies lately. Ironically some of the worst attitudes seem to be among those who hang on fiercely to our notions of sovereignty and national pride. Personally, I'd like to see a lessening of the trend for sentimentality that surfaces when tragedy happens; all those flowers and teddies and candles left at key sites, by people who never even knew those concerned. All those balloons and flaming lanterns released 'in memory', despite that we know how harmful they then prove to be to our wildlife. Yes, we need to teach the younger generations about our not always glorious history and we should always be deeply compassionate to those who struggle, for whatever reason, but I'm not sure we should sensationalise things. I'm not against the respectful commemoration of those who gave their lives and wellbeing for the sake of others, but maybe it's time to dial back on some of the indulgence of nostalgia. (I realise this may not be a widely held view but it's how I feel.) 

Crag House Farm

After my walk round Yeadon Tarn, I decided I'd drive a little further to Crag House Farm. It's run by a Christian charity, 'Caring for Life', which supports vulnerable and disadvantaged people in Leeds, through residential homes, care in the community and therapeutic projects at the farm. The farm site has lovely grounds, a plant nursery and a rather good restaurant and shop, selling local produce including beef, lamb and eggs reared on the farm. 

It's a while since I last visited and the grounds have been extended beyond the original woodland garden and down into the fields beyond. 

The bog and pond areas were low in water, though the bullrushes were abundant, as was the fruit on the trees and hedgerows. This was the last week in August and I'm not sure apples are usually ripe by now. Autumn seems to be early, I suppose sparked by the dry summer. The trees are stressed and prompted to produce fruit to survive, perhaps? 

Just alongside the farm buildings, some of the workers were checking (counting?) sheep. I hope they slept well that night!