Introduction to St. Andrews

23km (14 miles) SE of Dundee, 82km (51 miles) NE of Edinburgh

The medieval royal burgh of St. Andrews was once filled with monasteries and ancient houses that didn't survive the pillages of Henry VIII; regrettably, only a few ruins, rising in ghostly dignity, remain. Most of the town was built of local stone during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. This is the place where the rules of golf are codified and arbitrated. The sport was played for the first time in the 1400s, probably on the site of St. Andrews's Old Course, and was enjoyed here by Mary Queen of Scots in 1567. Golfers consider this town to be hallowed ground.