St Andrews for Guides

We are approaching the famous view of the three bridges across the river Forth that represent more than 100 years of Scottish engineering. The most famous is the oldest bridge that you can recognise by its bright red colour.

The Forth Bridge is one of the most iconic symbols of Edinburgh and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. When it opened in 1890, it was the longest bridge of its kind in the world. However, we partially owe its strength to a disaster. 

Years before the construction of the bridge, there were plans to connect Edinburgh and Fife, which was very ambitious for the time. Sir Thomas Bouch started to design the bridge, disaster struck. In 1987, a railway bridge across a huge Scottish river collapsed, killing 75 people. And guess who designed that bridge? Bouch was quickly fired from the Forth Bridge project, and two new designers replaced him. They intended to build a bridge that would not only withstand anything, but also repair the trust of people. Apparently red is a trustworthy colour, so this is why it looks the way it does today! With such a huge project, it's said that by the time workers moved from one end to the other, the paint on one end had already started chipping! 

There is not much left of the Castle today, but it is an important monument to the political and religious struggles of the late medieval times. Some events that happened here resemble Game of Thrones level of betrayal and violence. 

Originally, the Castle was built in the 12th Century as an official residence of Scotland's bishop. This shows how much power that figure held, as his residence was a miliraty fotress. Some of the biggestv political decisions in Scotland happened within these walls. 

The real stuff starts in the 16th century during the Reformation, where there was a shift from Catholicism to Protestantism. The process of religious shift was not peaceful, and a lot of violence occurred. A Catholic priest captured a Protestant preacher inside and burned him alive inside this Castle. Protestants then captured the Casle & assassinated the Priest. Then, the Catholics started a siege of the castle to try and take it back. They begun to dig a tunnel under the walls, when the Protestants noticed and dug counter tunnels to try and stop them. The tunnel is still present today, and if you're lucky you can climb through! 

The last thing to speak about is the bottle dungeon. It's a circular prison underground, getting its name from the structure narrowing at the top and expanding at the bottom, just like a bottle. Once the prisoner was inside, they were abandoned in complete isolation with no natural light, ventilation or sanitation. Can you imagine what this was life down there? It was definitely a torture method as well as a prison!

The Castle is in the state you see today because it has been without a resident since the late 16th century, when the bishops were abolished. It slowly crumbled and a lot of it collapsed into the sea below. 

Have some free time to explore the castle and imagine how it functioned in its heyday!

There's another testament of the distractive force that was the Reformation. 

Before St Andrews was the capital of golf, it was the religious capital of Scotland and the neighbouring countries. When it was built in the 12th century, this Cathedral, naturally, was the largest, most important religious site in the whole fo Scotland. Pilgrims gathered here as it contained holy relics, including the bones of Scotland's patron saint, Saint Andrew himself. Some people believe they are still there. 

Just like th Castle, it fell into disrepair during the Reformation. As we found out earler, the reformers loved attacking Catholic cathedrals, destroying the altars and artworks. The Cathedral was abandoned in favour of the new parish church. Parts of the structure collapsed due to lack of maintanence; most of its stones were repurposed for other buildings. 

You are now standing in the oldest University in Scotland and one of the oldest in the English-speaking world. It was founded in 1413, which is older than most countries! Students have been coming here for over 600 years to study literature, philosophy, theology, law, and science. St Andrews was founded by a group of Scottish scholars who had been studying in Paris, Oxford and Cambridge, but had to leave due to rising political and religious tensions during the Western Schism, when there were two popes competing for power. So, what did they do? They came home and created their own University with permission from the Pope of Avignon in 1413. That's right: the pope officially blessed the start of Scottish higher education. The University was actually modelled on Oxford and Cambridge, but wanted to focus more on theology and philosophy, and less on pleasing the King. It became a centre of Reformist thought long before the movement officially arrived. 

If you're a fan of royal stories, here's one for you! If we have any fans of the Netflix show 'The Crown', you might recognise the Univeristy from the show. Prince William, the future King, met his wife Kate Middleton while they were both studying art history here. They both lived in the same hall and had lectures in this very quad. Times are tough in the job market and degrees aren't a guarantee of a job, so if the degree doesn't get you much, maybe you'll have a chance of meeting your prince or princess at uni.  

This charming coast is called Ruby Bay. The name sounds very romantic, but it also has a literal origin- on sunny days, the reddish stones along the beach glisten like rubies. These aren't real gems, but fragments of jasper and garnet, naturally polished by the sea. 

The Lady's tower that you see overlooking the sea is the site of a legend about a quirky norble lady called Janet Anstruther. The tower was built as her personal changing room, as the lady loved two things- swimming and privacy. Most of you, I imagine, also don't like public changing rooms, but not all of us can build a private castle!

Lady Jane didn't like being distrurbed when swimming in the sea either. While she didn't have a private beach here, she made it very difficult for other people. When her ladyship wanted to take a dip, her servants would go into the village and ring a bell notifying people to stay away from the bay. That's what happens when you're an introvert with lots of money! 

Nobody is going to ring the bell now, so feel free to walk around and explore. Be careful when you're near the edge as it can get pretty windy!

Standing proudly at the tip of Elie Ness, Elie Ness Lighthouse has been guiding vessels through the treacherous waters around the Forth of Firth for almost 120 years and is now a very popular subject for photographers.

Built in response to pleas from mariners who were unable to see the warning flashes from the lighthouses on the Isle of May and Inchkeith during stormy weather, a beam of white light has been shining from the top of Elie Ness Lighthouse every six seconds since 1908.