Where golf was born — cathedral ruins, castle cliffs, and the Old Course's 18th green
St Andrews is simultaneously one of the oldest university towns in Britain (founded 1413, Scotland's first university), the ruins of what was once the largest cathedral in Scotland, a medieval castle on sea cliffs, and — most globally — the place where golf was codified and from which the rules of the game spread worldwide. The Old Course's 18th hole and the Swilcan Bridge are perhaps the most photographed golf landmarks on earth. The town itself is a preserved medieval grid of North Street, South Street, and Market Street behind a harbour, with the university providing the bookshops and stud…
St Andrews was the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland — the seat of the Archbishop of St Andrews and site of the largest cathedral in Scotland (now magnificent ruins) before the Reformation destroyed it in 1559. The castle on the sea cliffs was the Archbishop's residence and the site of the murder of Protestant reformer George Wishart (burned at the castle walls in 1546) and the subsequent Protestant seizure that sparked a siege, a battle, and the capture of John Knox as a French galley slave. The first written record of golf in St Andrews dates to 1552, when the Archbishop of St Andrews conf…