top of page

The Pends St Andrews

Cathedral of St Andrews

The Pends 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 it was approximately 119 m long, 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 Andrews Cathedral St Andrews
St Andrews Cathedral wall and tower.JPG
St Andrew's Cathedral Ruins St Andrews

The Pends Gate House St Andrews

The Pends St Andrews

"The Pends" was entry to the Priory

The Pends Gateway and Gatehouse were to protect

the priory and cathedral.

It has been standing since at least the 1300's and the wall has been standing from the 1500s.

"The Pends" was entry to the Priory

The Pends Gate St Andrews
Pends Gate House Entrance St Andrews
The Pends Gate St Andrews

St Andrews Cathedral Museum

The Pends St Andrews

St Andrews museum is found in what was the original Cathedral's Priory. This is where the Augustinian Canons lived. From here you proceed into the reception area and shop

Cathedral Cloisters Museum exhibits St Andrews
St Andrews Cathedral Museum Entrance
Cathedral Museum Carved Stones St Andrews

St Andrews Cathedral Museum

Royal Sarcophagus

The Pends St Andrews

The prize of the museum, the Royal Burial Shine from circa 761 AD. One of the finest stone carvings in Europe. See all the stone carvings headstones and other artifices.

Royal Sarcophagus End St Andrews
Royal Sarcophagus  St Andrews
Royal Sarcophagus End St Andrews

Rules' Tower

The Pends St Andrews

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, Rule had carried from Greece.

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 in Scotland.

He had a companion Triduana became a Saint, her story is, she 

 was born in the same place as Rule and was believed to have journeyed with Rule in the 4th century AD. 

Triduana settled in Scotland and due to her great beauty attracted the attentions of many men.

One in particular was

Nechtan King of the Picts.

Triduana to stop the King’s attention is said to have torn out her own eyes and gave them to the King.

As 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. 

Rules Tower St Andrews

Cathedral of St Andrews

Tom Morris Jnr. Grave

The Pends St Andrews

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

on the 20 April 1851 – Died 25 December 1875 (Age 24)

He is the youngest winner of the Open Championship (age 17).

 He also thought of a golf bag to carry clubs and balls, getting the idea when playing an Archer in an exhibition match.

Tommy won the Open Championship

4 times as his father did.

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

Tommy Morris Jnr Grave St Andrews
Rules Tower St Andrews

Eastern Graveyard

Tom Morris Snr. Grave

The Pends St Andrews

Old Tom Morris was born in North Street St Andrews Fife

in Scotland on 16th June 1821.

Father of Tom Morris Jnr.

both winners of the Open Championship on 4 occasions. 

Old Tom was a club maker, golf professional and greenkeeper. In 1864 he became the Keeper of the Greens and professional of Old Course St Andrews.

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.

His grave is on the eastern wall of the churchyard of St Andrew's Cathedral beside his son.

Tom Morris Snr Grave St Andrews
St Leonards The Pends

St Leonard’s College

The Pends St Andrews

St Leonard’s College was united with St Salvator's College on North Street in 1747 moving to

St Salvator’s at that time. While St Leonards lay unused to 1883, St Leonard's School for Girls became St Leonards and moved to the site which still occupies the school today. The Chapel became unused by 1761 until the chapel was re-roofed in 1910, then the interior was restored in 1952.

St Leonard’s School

The Pends St Andrews

Sir David Brewster

​KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE Plaque

Born Jedburgh 1781 – Died Melrose 1868

David Brewster was the principal of the United Colleges from 1838-1859. One of the most important inventor of our time. Inventing the Kaleidoscope and his work on polarized light helped with his development of Lasers, fibre optics and other optical devices.

He was Principal of the University of Edinburgh

in 1859. 1838, and Principal of the United Colleges

of St Salvator and St Leonard,

University of St Andrews. A true Genius.

Sir David Brewster Plaque St Andrews

St Leonard’s School

The Pends St Andrews

Matthew Forester Heddle FRSE MD Plaque

Mathew was born in Hoy in Orkney in 1828 his first school was Edinburgh Academy. He moved in 1842 to Merchiston Castle boarding school Edinburgh. Then the University of Edinburgh in 1844. Moving to Germany for a short time, on his return, graduated MD in 1851. In that year he became President of the Edinburgh Geological Society. After a number of years in medicine, he became the Chair of Chemistry in 1862- 1882 of St Andrews University. 1879 he was also awarded the Keith gold medal, by the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his paper on Rhombohedral Carbonates. Published a book on Mineralogy of Scotland. He died in 1897 and is buried in St Andrews Cathedral cemetery.

Matthew Heddle Plaque St Andrews

St Leonards Chapel

St Leonards Chapel built circa 1140. St Leonard’s chapel lies on the south side of St Leonard’s College Quadrangle. The Chapel became the parish church in 1413, dedicated to St Leonard. St Leonard’s College was founded in 1512 by Archbishop Alexander Stewart and Prior John Hepburn.

St Leonards Chapel
St Leonards Chapel The Pends St Andrews
St Leonards Chapel The Pends St Andrews

St Leonard’s Chapel Monuments

Inside the Chapel can be seen monument on the north wall: Robert Wilkie, college principal, who died in 1611. Peter Bruce, principal, who died in 1630 and Robert Stewart, Earl of March who died in 1586.  Also original slabs on the floor, the earliest being Canon William Ruglyn died 1502.

Gregory Lane St Andrews

 Sir George Douglas of Loch Leven

Deans Court

Gregory Lane St Andrews

Sir George Douglas lived in what was known as "Archdeacons Inns" as it was the residence of the Archdeacon of St Andrews Sir George was younger brother of William Douglas who owned Loch Leven Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned between June 1567 and May1568.

See more of the escape of Mary Queen of Scots with the help of the Douglas family from Loch Leven, on the plaque. George spent 6 years in France before returning to Scotland in 1574.

Deans Court Gregory Lane St Andrews
Deans Court  Sir George Douglas of Lochleven Plaque Gregory Lane St Andrews
James Haldenstone Plaque Gregory Lane St Andrews

James Haldenstone Plaque

Gregory Lane St Andrews

James Haldenstone was the

Prior of St Andrews from 1417.

He became Vicar - General after the death of

Bishop Wardlaw of St Andrews in 1440.

He died in 1443. 

He was interned in the north wall of

the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral.

See the plaque for more details

near The Roundel

​St Andrews
Fife Pilgrims Trail
Gregory Lane St Andrews

For over 500 years until the Reformation, pilgrims arrived to worship at the shrine of

St Andrew where his relics (bones) were kept,

eventually to be housed within the Cathedral.

The Fife Pilgrims Trail starts

in Ceres and ends outside the Cathedral

at Dean’s Court Gregory Lane St Andrews.

The circuit takes you round over twenty places of

cultural, religious and historical interest.

Thanks to the members of 

St Andrews Preservation Trust

in their help planning the circuit.

Pilgrim Trail End St Andrews
The Roundel St Andrews

 

The Roundel

South Street + Gregory Lane

 

A 16th-century Tower building dedicated for doctoral students studying divinity at the

University of St Andrews. The college is one of five approved centres for the training of

Church of Scotland ministers.

The Roundel stands on the corner of South Street overlooking St Andrews Cathedral.

East Scores and The Pends
St Andrews Attractions  

Church of St Mary on the Rocks

 

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

St Mary on the Rock an early medieval church,

dating to the 12th century.

Built on the site of an earlier 9th century Culdee

(Scottish monks of the 8th to 12th centuries living as a recluse usually in a group of thirteen

on the analogy of Christ and his Apostles).

The tradition ceased as the Celtic Church was brought under Roman Catholic rule.

Before 1290 St Mary on the Rock had become a collegiate church and a royal chapel.

The church was built on a headland that overlooks St Andrews bay and the harbour.

St Mary on the Rock was demolished in 1559

Today only the foundations which were uncovered in 1860 can be seen.

East Scores The Pends
St Mary of the Rocks Ruins St Andrews

Defence Canon
 

The canon face out to see to defend the town from invaders that arrived by sea from many countries, Spanish, English, American and French. 

St Andrews Defence Canon St Andrews

St Andrews Pier


The Pier originally built of wood was replaced in mid-1500. Confirmation the pier being of stone, records show of a great storm that damaged the ashlar on the pier in 1573. The pier was replaced in 1655. The pier and harbour walls have over the centuries be rebuilt several times due to storm damage.

St Andrews Pier St Andrews

East Sands St Andrews
 

St Andrews East Beach (Sands) can be located on the south side of the old harbour. From St Andrews Castle keep to the coast road with St Andrews Cathedral on your Right. This is a popular beach which is safe for children.

The golden sandy beach with a wide variety of water sports.

There is a car park first aid facilities and toilet facilities available.

During Peak Summer there are on duty lifeguards and Café.

East harbour Beach St Andrews

St Andrews Harbour 
St Andrews has been mentioned in transcripts, having a fishing harbour as far back as 1222, and another record dates from 1363.

St Andrews Harbour St Andrews
bottom of page