First Museum 

 University of St Andrews

Dr John Adamson (12 December 1809 – 11 August 1870)

helped found the Literary and Philosophical Society’s Museum

and remained its curator from its beginning in 1838 until his death.

Founded in 1838 by the Literary and Philosophical Society.

A partnership between the University and town.

In 1912 the museum had to be moved from Upper College Hall to the new Bell Pettigrew Museum.

He lived at 127 South Street in St Andrews from 1848 to 1865

He studied medicine at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh and qualified with a licentiate diploma (LRCS) from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1829.

St Andrews obtained the opportunity to play a major part in the early development of photography, through Sir David Brewster’s close connection with William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of an early photographic process named calotype.

Due to Adamson’s’ friendship with Sir David Brewster he became heavily involved with studying the calotype and played a leading role in the research. He was also responsible for the first calotype portrait in Scotland in 1840-1842 (mid 1842), which is now in the National Museum of Scotland.

Over the years he taught his younger brother Robert Adamson about the calotype process.

Robert, in collaboration with David Octavius Hill, used later to produce over 2500 photographs

from 1843 to 1848.

He also taught Thomas Rodger the technique and art of photography and inspired him to become a pioneering photographer.

Brewster, Adamson and Rodger made St Andrews a world centre of Photography.

 

The West Port

South Street St Andrews 

The West Port was built circa 1580 and is the only gate in its original position left in Scotland.

The gateway may have been part of a town wall that would have been closed at night and in case of invasion by the English or French. The gate was extensively refurbished in 1843. 

Above the centre of the arch is the St Andrews Coat of Arms. The original plaque is in the St Andrews Museum (Kilburn House).

 

James Gregory's Meridian Line

South Street St Andrews

James Gregory was first Regius professor of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews IN 1668.

A Scottish mathematicians and natural philosophers.

In 1672 he mathematically established a meridian line, a line circling the earth from pole to pole along which the time is the same, passing through St Andrews.

Currently all time in the world is calculated using a line, passing through

Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

Midday on this line is known as 12.00 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

 As St Andrews is further west than Greenwich, the time at Gregory's meridian is 12 minutes behind GMT. To mark his meridian, Gregory carved it into the floor of his laboratory, now part of the

King James Library at the University of St Andrews.

The brass meridian line and plaque were installed in the pavement of South Street outside the Library to commemorate Gregory's achievement.

 

Due to the time lapse, for over three centuries, people have been turning up for work 12 minutes too early, pubs and polling stations have been closing much earlier than they should,

“The world could today be running on STAMT (St Andrews Mean Time) and not GMT,” said Dr John Amson, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Mathematic at St Andrews University and an authority on Gregory.

 

Gregory’s Meridian Line also begs the question: where is True East and where is True West?

Gregory’s Meridian would place Aberdeen and London in the “Oriental hemisphere”, rather than the Western Hemisphere.

 

Anyone when in St Andrews can now stand with one foot in each hemisphere – and set their watches to STAMT. (St Andrews Mean Time).

 

 

Blackfriars Chapel

South St, St Andrews 

Blackfriars Chapel was built in 1525.  The Blackfriars were Dominican Friars who were introduced to

St Andrews by Bishop Wishart circa 1274. The chapel was built on an older church building, and consisted of a nave and transepts. The friary was damaged by fire in 1547 and destroyed in 1559 by a Protestant raid, only the chapel remained. 

 

George Martine of Claremont

1635 -1712

He was a lawyer commissary clerk of St Andrews and author of the First history of the

"Reliquiae Divi Andreae" and lived in 56 South Street St Andrews as did his son.

 

George Martine (the younger) FRS 1700 - 1741

George was educated at the University of St Andrews when he was thirteen. Later, he went to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1720 and then went to the University of Leyden, where he graduated in 1725. He was a Physician, Surgeon and geologist, George also was the first to make a careful study of heat and scales of temperature, and made the first estimate -400F, of the absolute zero temperature. He made the first useful mercury in glass clinical thermometer. He also was in 1730 the first to perform a Tracheotomy in Britain.

 

James Boswell

and Samuel Johnson

This is the site of the Glass Inn 29 South Street where Boswell and Dr Johnson had supper on

18th August 1773. We had a dreary drive in a dusky night to St Andrews where we arrived late. We found a good supper at Glass's Inn. The Glass Inn survived circa 1830

 

  

Cathedral of St Andrews

The Cathedral was built in 1158 and was the religious centre of the Medieval Catholic Church in Scotland. The seat of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and the Bishops and Archbishops of St Andrews.

It was left disused and fell into ruin after Catholic mass was outlawed in 1560. The ruins indicate that the building was approximately 119 m long, and is the largest church to have been built in Scotland.

The Scottish Reformation in Scotland came to a head with iconoclasm.

(The deliberate destruction of religious icons or monuments) all over Scotland.

St Andrews was the target of the army of the Lords of the Congregation as they destroyed alters and religious icons, and whitewashed the walls of the churches.

 

St Rules Tower

St Andrews, Scotland

Circa 1070 in the time of Malcolm III a church (St Rule’s Tower St Andrews) was built to protect the

bones of St Andrew that Rule had carried from Greece.

Saint Triduana

​Saint Triduana was born in the Greece and was believed to have journeyed with Rule a holy man from the area of Patras in Greece in the 4th century AD.

Rule deciding to stop the Romans from seizing the bones of Saint Andrew and took as many bones as he could and travelled as far from Greece as possible ending his journey in Scotland.

Triduana settled in Scotland and due to her great beauty attracted the attentions of many men. One in particular was Nectan King of the Picts. Triduana to stop the King’s attention she is said to have torn out her own eyes and gave them to the King. As Saint Triduana aged she settled in an area outside an area known as Eidyn later known as Edinburgh.  Many people made pilgrimages to see her as she was believed to have the power to make the blind see. On her death in Restalrig a shrine was built in her honour and was intact until the reformation in the 1500.  There are many stories of the blind praying to Saint Triduana and regaining their sight. St Margaret’s Well, previously known as St Triduana’s Well, before the well was moved to its present position in the King’s Park next to Holyrood.

 

Tom Morris Snr. Grave,

St Andrews Cathedral

Old Tom Morris was born in North Street St Andrews Fife in Scotland on 16th June 1821 a club maker,  golf professional and greenkeeper. Morris returned to St Andrews in 1864 to take charge of the links,

as Keeper of the Green and professional, Tom Morris Snr died in St Andrews when he fell down the stairs at The New Club across from the 18th Green on May 24th, 1908 at the age of 86. the eastern wall of the churchyard of St Andrew's Cathedral beside his son. 

He won The Open Championship 4 times.

1861 Scotland  Tom Morris Sr.  Prestwick Golf Club

1862 Scotland  Tom Morris Sr.  Prestwick Golf Club

1864 Scotland  Tom Morris Sr.  Prestwick Golf Club

1867 Scotland  Tom Morris Sr.  Prestwick Golf Club

Tom Morris Jnr. Grave

St Andrews Cathedral

Young Tom (Tommy) Morris was born in St Andrews Fife in Scotland on the

20 April 1851 – Died 25 December 1875 age 24 years. He also thought of a golf bag to carry clubs

and balls, getting the idea when playing a Archer in an exhibition match.

1868       Scotland              Tom Morris Jr.   Prestwick Golf Club                        

1869       Scotland              Tom Morris Jr.   Prestwick Golf Club                        

1870       Scotland              Tom Morris Jr.   Prestwick Golf Club                        

1872       Scotland              Tom Morris Jr.   Prestwick Golf Club                        

 

St Andrews Cathedral

Museum

The museum occupies parts of the east and south ranges of what were originally the cathedral's priory, where the Augustinian canons who served the cathedral lived. The entrance is in the south-east corner, where a glass covered walkway has been formed from a passage between the ranges.

 From here you proceed into the reception area and shop.

 

St Mary on the Rocks 

St Mary on the Rocks is the remains of a church possibly built circa 1240.

Built on the site of a 9th century Culdee (Scottish monk of the 8th to 12th centuries, living as a recluse usually in a group of thirteen. Circa 1290 St Mary on the Rock had become a collegiate church and a royal chapel.

The church built overlooking St Andrews bay and the harbour.  St Mary on the Rock was demolished in 1559 and today only the foundations which were uncovered in 1860 can be seen.

 

 St Andrews Castle

St Andrews Castle, the Scores, St Andrews Scotland

St Andrews Castle first built circa 1070 the castle was erected around at the time of Malcolm III who also started the fortification of Edinburgh Castle. St Andrews Castle stands on a cliff overlooking the sea 

A courtyard castle now in ruins. The stronghold of the Bishops of St Andrews and where the murder of Cardinal David Beaton took place in 1546.

 

Castle Ghosts

The ghost of Archbishop John Hamilton, who was hanged at Stirling, is said to haunt the castle; some reports have Archbishop David Beaton’s apparition also being seen here, and the spectre of Archbishop James Sharp being seen in a carriage. There are also tales of a ‘White Lady’, seen near the stronghold and on the nearby beach, possibly the same bogle seen more often at the cathedral.

She has been described as being clad in white with a veil which obscures her face.

 

St Andrews Town Hall

St Andrews Town Hall erected in 1858 for municipal and public purposes

Sir Hugh Playfair Provost. St Andrews Town Hall’s structure was in an old Scotch baronial style, and along with the bold and picturesque effect of the style it combined all the convenience and appliances of contemporary art.

 

Polish Soldier

Mosaic Memorial St Andrews

The mosaic on the town hall of St Andrews commemorates a large number of Polish troops stationed in the area after the capitulation of Poland in 1939.

 

Robert Chambers  

Robert Chambers built this house 6 Gillespie Terrace in St Andrews in 1863 after marrying his second wife in North Street St Andrews in 1867 and lived here till his death in 1871.

Chambers was a top publishing house of its time in Edinburgh. In 1844 he wrote

"Vestiges of the natural history of creation"(A theory of Evolution) 15yrs prior to Darwin.

Robert Chambers set up a book-shop in Leith which was very successful.

In 1832 he helped his brother, William Chambers, launch a weekly paper, ‘Edinburgh Journal‘.

They founded W and R Chambers, publishers of school text-books, People’s Editions of literary works and the famous Chamber’s encyclopaedia and Chamber’s English dictionary. In addition to contributing articles to the journal he produced several biographical, historical and topographical works including

‘Traditions of Edinburgh’. His son, Robert, continued the publishing business.

Robert Chambers was born on 10 July 1802.

First marriage in 1829, Robert Chambers, bookseller, residing in Upper Dean Terrace, Stockbridge, in this parish, married Jane Anne Kirkwood, residing in number 27 Elder Street in the parish of St Andrews,

In 1851 Robert Chambers, 48, writer and publisher, lived at 1 Doune Terrace in the parish of St Stephen with his seven daughters and six servants. He remarried in 1867 age 64, married Mary Anne Frith on

8 January 1867. 6 Gillespie Terrace, St Andrews.

 

Gavin Douglas 1474 - 1522

Gavin Douglas was born in Tantallon Castle East Lothian.

He was 3rd son of Archibald "Bell the Cat" Douglas 5th Earl of Angus. A student of St Andrews University, he was a poet noted for his "Palice of Honour" and for his "Eneados" a translation of Virgil's "Aeneid" into Scots. He was Dean of St Giles Edinburgh in 1501 the Bishop of Dunkeld in 1515. Died 1522 London of the Plague. His Coat of Arms once was above the plaque see below what it looked like.

 Sir George Douglas

Sir George Douglas lived in what was known as "Archdeacons Inns" Deans Court, St Andrews, as it was the residence of the Archdeacon of St Andrews, Sir George was younger brother of William Douglas who owned Lochleven Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned between June 1567 and May 1568. Willie Douglas, believed to be the illegitimate child of Sir William Douglas, helped Mary escape on

May 2 1568, and the Queen was met by Sir George Douglas at the shore of the Loch. More of the escape of Mary Queen of Scots with the help of the Douglas family from Lochleven, on the plaque. George spent 6 years in France before returning to Scotland in 1574.  

 

 University of St Andrews

St Katharine's West,

University of St Andrews St Katharine's West, The Scores St Andrews KY16 9AX

St Katharine’s West is located on The Scores and is the home to various University units including Admissions, Registry and Print and Design. St Katharine’s West is often used for admission events and as a meeting point for guided tours of the University.

 

Wardlaw Museum 

Wardlaw Museum St Andrews University 7 The Scores St Andrews KY16 9AR

The Wardlaw Museum of the University of St Andrews, has exhibitions of art, history, science and natural history collections. With temporary exhibitions throughout the year. There are also many interactive experiences for all ages, the Wardlaw Museum is a major new cultural space for St Andrews

Entry is Free and opening times are;

Monday to Friday from 11am to 7pm Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm

 

Thomas Rodger Plaque

Photographic Studio

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 George John Whyte-Melville

Memorial Fountain

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Bell Pettigrew Museum

Access through the St Mary's Quad South Street

The Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History is open to the general public during school holidays.

Entry is free.

 

 Observatory University of St Andrews

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