Andy brought his Rough Guide and read it to me on the twisty roads. I decided to head first to the ancient ruined cathedral and castle and then to see the Botanic Garden. The golf courses and golf museums didn't interest me in the slightest. Andy gave me a small street map of the town and this was incredibly useful for finding my way around. First stop: tourist information office, toilets, and postcards.
St. Andrews really only has about three main streets paralleling each other, with minor cross streets connecting them, so it was easy to wander through town and keep my bearings. I headed out to the end of town to see the castle and cathedral. The Rough Guide says the cathedral was founded in 1160 but not finished until 1318. It was "plundered" during the Reformation of 1559 and has been in ruins ever since. Apparently much of the town was built with the stones from the destroyed cathedral.
The grounds were open to everyone and people wandered through the gravestones, snapping photos and staring upwards at the towering stone ruins. St. Rule's Tower is the square tower next to the cathedral spire--it has stairs you can climb up for a view of the town (after paying the entrance fee). It dates from 1130 when there was an abbey here.
I climbed the narrow spiral stairs to the top of St. Rule's Tower and enjoyed the view and the gusting wind. I could hear grunts and squeals coming from below as a father chased his children around on the sunny lawn. A long curve of sandy beach framed the town to the east, and I could see people walking up and down the long pier.
You can see the ruined castle jutting out into the water beyond the houses.
Next I went to explore the castle. On the drive over, I had heard from Toby about the famous "mine and counter mine" that were dug underneath the castle during a siege. The siegers dug a tunnel into the rock under the castle with the aim of collapsing the front wall and gate. The occupants of the castle dug a counter mine to intercept the attackers before they reached their goal. There was lots of frantic tunneling, several dead ends, and then a bloody battle when the counter-miners broke through into the larger tunnel and surprised their attackers. I was hoping to be able to see the remains of the tunnels underneath the castle.
The castle was built around 1200 and was ruined in the 1600s. Lots of bloody history associated with the Reformation, with Protestant reformers burnt at the stake, Catholic high-ups stabbed and murdered, and people interred in the bottle dungeon--a bottle-shaped pit carved 24 feet into solid rock beneath the castle. Creepy!!
Fulmars nested on the cliffs below the castle and circled on the updrafts along the castle walls.
I followed the signs for the Mine and Counter Mine and descended first into the narrow, twisty, and low counter mine.
The defendants of the castle didn't have time to make the tunnel tall enough to stand in, and the floor of the tunnel was slick, uneven, and steeply sloping. Side tunnels branched off to dead ends. Suddenly at the end of the narrow dark tunnel a hole opened in the floor and a ladder took me down into the larger mine. Clearly the attackers felt they had plenty of time to build nice even stairs, high ceilings, and a wide passageway. The mine ended in a stone wall so I went back the way I had come.
I met Andy for lunch and we took a short walk down to the beach and climbed around on the rocks.
My next journey was out to the Botanic Garden which was a little way south of town. My feet were beginning to ache by this time but I paced along slowly and found the Botanic Garden without any problem, it being well marked from the road. It was so wonderful, I have to make a separate post for it.
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