We’re trying something a little different this week, and handing the power over to you to create our blog post! I like to think of it as the introduction of democracy.
What is your favourite St Andrews moment? Maybe you had the ice cream of your life here? Perhaps you beat all your friends on the putting green? Maybe your favourite classic film played at the New Picture House, or your child performed at the Byre Theatre? Did you get engaged at table 5 in the Seafood Restaurant?
Whatever your cherished memories of St Andrews, why not share them with the world this week?
Recently, my favourite St Andrews memory is of sitting literally five feet away from KT Tunstall as she played a tiny acoustic gig at the Inn at Lathones!
KT Tunstall was doing a little tour of her old local area to preview her new album, so of course she visited her childhood town of St Andrews. She was absolutely brilliant, and I would never have had the opportunity to see that sort of gig outside St Andrews.
She said that while she was in St Andrews, she had visited a few of her old favourite places: St Andrews Castle dungeons, the West Sands Beach, and she played a round of putting on the Himalayas.
We visited Scotland for the first time in 2006 when my then 16 yo son wanted to play golf. The two week trip kindled a love of the place so strong that he decided to attend university somewhere in Scotland and will be a third year at St Andrews this fall. My favorite memory has got to be watching him play the Old Course for the first time after a six hour wait for a spot. Standing in the 18th fairway he told me that he had read that one of the top 50 things a golfer needs to do before he/she dies is to hit an approach shot to the 18th green of the Old Course and have the people hanging around watching applaud the shot. He stepped up and hit a beauty to 20 feet and we could hear the applause from the fairway. Better yet, he drained the putt, got a second round of applause and signed for a 74. We then spend the next two hours sitting on the steps by the R&A watching groups come. We could have sat there forever.
Beach Parties down the West Sands in the 1970′s!! What great days !!
Myself and my husband derek met when working at the Rusack’s Hotel in 1980, he was a chef, i was a waitress. he proposed to me while walking back from seeing a film at the picture house. we got married in the Rusacks in dec. 1981. our fav places were walking down west sands and the ladebraes! we live in moray now but love to spend a weekend at St. Andrews!
A very recent memory for me is on the Tuesday evening of Open week, enjoying some wonderful hospitality at McDonald Russacks Hotel, I met a lovely couple on holiday from Canada.
They were well travelled folk, but were awe-struck by St Andrews – the golf, the courses, the people and the players – but most exciting for them was the intimacy. They followed various golf tours around the world but had never experienced the opportunity to get so close to some of the worlds top golfers.
I was delighted that they were loving their trip and St Andrews so much – and pleased that I could help them make even more of their holiday by suggesting some of St Andrews best places to eat, drink and visit.
I’ve spent holidays in St Andrews and later on in Crail throughout my entire life.
We first used to rent a caravan privately from an owner at Kinkell Braes. I loved being near to the sea and trying to stay up late enough to accompany my father on his late evening walk along the cliff, after we children were supposedly ‘in bed’.
I can remember as a child enjoying seeing the orange crocosmia (not that I knew the name then) growing by the path from Kinkell down to the East Sands, and picking stalks of tickly barley from the edge of the farmer’s field to supplement a little bouquet of wild flowers to put on the caravan table.
We used to set off down to the beach at the East Sands early in the day, and stay there all day with a picnic, running in and out of the water, digging holes and building sandcastles but the smell I can remember most of those days was the Ambre Solaire Oil which my dad used to put on and which eventually soaked into his towelling summer beach shirt. Before we’d even heard of SPFs.
Later when I returned to St Andrews on day trips from our base in Crail with my own children, I was surprised to find my 1960s swimming costume gracing a St Andrews Museum display of ‘what beach holidays used to be like in the 1960s’!
The routine for our holidays used to go like this: West Sands, East Sands, Step Rock Pool, Castle Sands, Craigtoun Park, Kinburn Park, and if the weather was good we’d beg to go to Craigtoun more than once in the week so that we could bounce on the trampolines (6d for a quarter hour), ride on Puffing Billy (a tractor pulling train carriages), and visit the Fairyland Railway.
Now when we go it seems to be more East Sands, Jack Wills, SuperDry, Bonkers, Fisher & Donaldson’s and a trip to Costa to use the Wi-Fi!
Watching the dawn at 4am from my top floor room in David Russell Hall (’70s) with Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” on the headphones…
Our family (all 18 of us) holiday each year in this beautiful Scottish town.
We have been coming here, from our locations across the UK and the world as adults with our own children for the last 15 years, but prior to that, as children with our parents, following a familt tradition set by my own father and his family, who can trace back to 1889 when they first spent a holiday here.
There is a fine photo I have of my great grandparents walking down South Street, circa, 1920.
Normally, we stay in town, but this year, maybe due to the Open, we found it hard to get any accommodation large enough for us all, so we rented some holiday cottages a little further out and travelled in.
We stayed the first week of August – the 8 children enjoyed daily swimming and daily trips to the beaches and dunes at the West Sands (the weather was kind to us !) they also went horse riding and to the beach at Tents Muir. Mid week we took a trip to the crab and lobster hut at Crail Harbour for fresh seafood – wonderful. The boys all golfing during the week, managed to fit in a BBQ at the cottages, and ate out at the Seafood Restaurant, The Vine Leaf, the Glasshouse, the Eden, Littlejohn’s, The Old Course Hotel, drinks at Road Hole Bar, ice creams from B Janneta’s and lots of trips to the Tail End (a great new addition to St Andrews)and Luvian’s Bottle Shop.
The Fair Ground was just setting up as we left – this year, St Andrews was more crowded than ever – lots of families – loved it as always, and those sunsets over the bay, just delightful.
1967-1970: Watching the waves crash up against the rocks where the road bends in an L going out to the West Sands — just down from the R & A. At that time, there wasn’t a seawall, nor a parking lot) and when the sea was particularly angry, the water pound the rocks and shoot up into the air — it was pretty exciting to see the power it exerted. Many of my memories of St. Andrews center on the sea. I was a student there and now am a frequent visitor, and regard the sea as the soul of the town.
Sitting outside Cherries having a coffee, enjoying seeing people I know walk by, chatting with them, the smiles from the staff – relaxation, good company, fine coffee – who could ask for anything more!
I was a youngster on family holidays at Elie in the 60s and we would take the diesel train to St Andrews for the day. It was a long grinding journey but worth it for the trip by red bus (from opposite the station) to Craigton Park. “Puffing Billy” met us at the park gates to hurl us quickly to the really good attractions there : the Castle, great crazy golf, and the (rather short) railway. Craigton really was a great attraction at that time.