When he lived in London in the 1970's Duncan bought me this 18th Century print of the city of St. Andrews. Below it is my best attempt to rework a photograph made in 1997 from approximately the same viewpoint as that of the 18th century artist:

     The city, like almost all other medieval cities, once had a wall surrounding it. Much of it is gone now, but this elegant gate to the south remains:



The Pends

     The cathedral was built in the 13th century. In the 17th or 18th century the town needed money badly, so the council sold the lead covering the roof. When the building fell in, it provided a copious supply of stone for building around the town. Many walls and house walls show carved stones to this day:


Ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral
The square tower in the center of the picture is
St Rules or St. Regulus tower, built as a church tower
about a century earlier the cathedral.
     Seaward of the Cathedral was the castle:


     The archbishop lived here until protestants stormed it and "defenestrated" the last archbishop, Cardinal Beaton. An English army and a French fleet, switching their usual roles and enmities, besieged and recaptured it. The French got John Knox, who served in their galleys for a long time before escaping to return to Scotland.

     Below the castle and cathedral are the harbour and pier:

     Students who attend chapel, and those who care to join them, walk out in their scarlet flannel gowns along the lower level of the pier, to the left in the picture. In my day the men walked back along the higher part of the pier. There was a tradition that when women were admitted to the University in 1889 (St. Andrews was the first in Scotland to admit them), the men tossed their trenchards (to Americans, mortar-boards) into the sea. Recently the Alumni Journal denounced this tale as a myth. It still makes sense to me, because in the 1930's the women (who slightly outnumbered the men) wore trenchards, but the men didn't. The bejantines (first year women) wore yellow tassels, the semis red and the seniors black, if I remember correctly.