Following the A917 which cuts across Fife's eastward protruding nib, the view from Kinkell Braes gives an excellent preface to the 'Auld Grey Toon' as St Andrews is known, overlooking the West Sands and the old harbour with the spires and stumps of the once great cathedral towering over all. In many respects, St Andrews is like an island of culture, of ecclesiastical antiquity and of the great game of golf, set in a largely rural sea. Accents are heard from most parts of the globe, pilgrims of one kind or another coming to venerate St Andrews' history - or is it its fairways? Fulfilling a life-long ambition to play the St Andrews Old Course has become a modern pilgrimage for many modern travellers while, centuries before, the town had the same magnetism for more pious visitors who came to venerate the site of St Andrew's burial.

How the town, indeed Scotland's relationship with the Christian apostle, came about, is slightly confused as there are several stories. Legend has it that St Andrew was crucified by the husband of a convertee, asking to be placed on a X-shaped cross so as not to emulate Jesus. Several centuries later, a Greek monk called St Rule, charged with the care of the saint's relics, received a vision to 'journey to the utmost edge of the world' and there place the remains of the saint. St Rule's ship foundered on the rocks just off the site of today's harbour and he scrambled ashore to be met by King Angus who had also received a vision of St Andrew granting him victory over vastly superior forces. Angus gave the monk the land near the harbour to establish a shrine and place of pilgrimage and thus started the town and religious centre of St Andrews.

As you come into town from the south, the most prominent buildings breaking the skyline are St Andrews Cathedral and St Rules Tower. Massive stone precincts encircle the cathedral grounds which are entered at the tops of North or South Street where there is limited parking. The construction of the present cathedral began in 1160 but was not consecrated until around 1318 by Bishop Lamberton in the presence of King Robert the Bruce. It then became the greatest, as well as largest, church in Scotland with thousands of pilgrims travelling hundreds of miles to receive its benediction. The cathedral must have been a gratifying sight through the medieval period but in 1559, Scotland's zealous reformer, John Knox stirred his audience so much they ransacked the place of its images, altars and books leaving the cathedral in virtual ruin. There is a small museum in the grounds and the earliest surviving sculpture in Scotland is found there, the St Andrews Sarcophagus, not a coffin but an intricately carved, shrine stone box.

Utilising the cliffs as part of its defence, St Andrews Castle stands on a rocky promontory, a hundred yards away from the cathedral entrance. As the residence of the bishops and later Archbishops of St Andrews, it was also used as their palace, fortress and prison. First erected around 1200, the ruins seen today date back to 1571.