Day 83: Leuchars to Crail, Fife

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

28th March 2021: 42.60km walked today taking the total to 8338.62/8868km. 6% of 86 entries submitting 710.28km.

Today we start at RAF Leuchars before walking into St Andrew’s to explore the town. From there we walk along the Fife Coastal Path past Fife Ness before reaching Crail.

Route 22: Aberdeen to St Andrews

Route 23: St Andrews to Glasgow

RAF Leuchars began in 1920 and continued until 2015 when it became Leuchars Station, a British Army Barracks, home to Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Royal Engineers, Military police units, and also ESUAS and 612 (R) Squadron. It is maintained as a relief landing strip for RAF Lossiemouth and other aircraft; there are also some RAF units still stationed here. Leuchars Airshow was one of the best in the UK, the last being held in 2013 before the British Army took over the base.

Near the station is the small town of Leuchars, and as we arrive on its outskirts, we see Earlshall Castle, built in the 16th century. It passed through many ownerships before Robert Lorimer, Scottish architect, restored it from a ruin in 1895; it is still in private ownership today. Leuchars was a settlement as far back as the late 1100s, its name comes from the Gaelic for rushes, ‘luachair’. There is a beautiful Romanesque Parish Church here, built in 1187 and dedicated to St Athernase. The town became a much busier place after the War Office purchased fields to the east in 1908, and its story became forever linked with one of the world’s longest-running military airfields. Leuchars is well served by a well-linked train line re-established in 1989 also serving Tayport and St Andrews.

Heading south out of town we arrive in Guardbridge, sitting on the Eden Estuary. Its name comes from the 6- arched bridge built over the River Eden in the 15th century to see the students’ safe passage to their studies in St Andrews. The newer road bridge runs next to it as the old bridge is for pedestrians only these days. A village grew around the bridge because of William Haig who, in 1873 formed the Guardbridge Paper Company with 2 of his sons, an alternative use for their whisky distillery that had been moved elsewhere. The paper mill prospered for many years, finally going into receivership, under different ownership, in 2008. The building has been occupied by Eden Mill Brewery and Distillery since 2012, the first combined microbrewers and distillers in Scotland, producing traditional, IPA and craft ales, as well as Eden Mill gin and whisky since 2014. We cross the bridge at Motray Water to pass Eden Mill located at the Eden Campus Energy Centre. The site belongs to the University of St Andrews who are seeking to become the first carbon-neutral university in the UK. They have opened a new facility called the GENEration Storage Innovation and Sustainability Centre (GENESIS) for research and development activity in storing and converting energy.

We cross the River Eden on Guardbridge, the railway piers visible in the river from when the railway line once passed through here until its closure in 1969. We are still on the Fife Coastal Path and in the Nature Reserve which runs along the edge of Out Head to its tip, a headland a little along the coast. We follow the A91 until we reach St Andrews and its Golf Links which are located on Out Head; it's not an easy headland to walk so we continue into the town on the path. We turn left onto Old Guardbridge Road heading into town, the Old Course Hotel and Links Courses to our left, with Station Park and St Andrews University buildings to our right. We are now in St Andrews.

St Andrews is famous for its golf, university and cathedral ruins, but like everywhere else there is more to the story than that. It had existed as a settlement since the Mesolithic age before being called St Andrews by 1150. By then it was a royal burgh and played a leading role in the Scottish church following the arrival of St Andrew’s relics around 747AD. This role had been accelerated by the Viking invasion of Iona, which saw the removal of St Columba’s relics from the island in 849AD, after which they lost their church position.

St Andrews Castle was built as the Bishop's residence after work began on the cathedral in 1160. The cathedral was the largest ever built in Scotland, taking 150 years to complete and consecrated in the presence of Robert the Bruce in 1318. The university was founded in 1413 as Bishop James Kennedy and others were keen to establish a seat of learning. The Scottish Reformation brought about the end of monastic life here in 1559. The university survived the Scottish Reformation only because the concept of secular universities had been accepted by this time, with Glasgow and Aberdeen having been established. The famous red gowns were adopted in the 1600s and remain to this day. It is the oldest university in Scotland and the 3rd oldest in the UK. St Andrews is very much a university town, having ‘grown-up’ around the colleges, so they are very much woven into its fabric.

The game of golf has been played here since c1400. James II of Scotland tried to ban the game in 1457 because it distracted his subjects from their archery practice. Largely ignored, the ban stood until the reign of James IV, a keen golfer. In 1754 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, as it is known today was formed. It has become the premier golf club in the world, governing golf rules worldwide except for the US. The Old Course is a frequent venue for the Open Championships and champions include Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.

St Andrews had a leading role in the Scottish church for 500 years, so following the Scottish Reformation, the town declined for the most part of 300 years until the appointment of Provost Hugh Playfair in 1842. Although golf was becoming popular in the 18th century, Playfair brought about a major change. He widened the medieval streets, built a library, oversaw the arrival of the railway, expanded the university and updated the golf club and harbour, transforming it into a modern burgh. Much of what we’ll see can be attributed to him.

We leave Old Guardbridge Road and join the walkway into the University of St Andrews Campus, following paths through landscaped areas to Kinburn House. St Andrews Museum, founded in 1991, is located in this Victorian mansion within Kinburn Park. The museum focuses on the history of the town from the 12th century and runs a rotating exhibition programme. We enjoy browsing the museum and gardens before continuing on our route to join Lade Braes Walk alongside the Kinness Burn. This is part of an artificial waterway system created in the 12th century to feed the Priory of St Andrews, it's mills and millponds using a network of streams to provide water across the town, quite a feat of engineering for its time. By the 17th century, it was quite polluted as townsfolk also used it for their washing, cleaning and even drinking. Over time lades and ponds have been covered over or filled but the Lade Braes Walk alongside the Kinness Burn remains. We cross a footbridge at the mill cottage to reach the Botanic Gardens located on the opposite side of the burn. The gardens were relocated from St Mary’s College in the 1960s to allow further development. Hosting 8000 native and exotic species over 18 acres, it is run by the University of St Andrews and Fife Council and is listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. We enjoy a wander through the greenhouses and garden areas then stop for a cuppa at their cafe.

On exiting the Botanics we turn left to join the Viaduct Walk which leads us back eventually to Grannie Clark’s Wynd. The viaduct once carried trains from the St Andrews Station southwest out of the town, the train service ended in 1969. We cut through the 1st and 18th fairways on Grannie Clark’s Wynd. To our right is the Royal and Ancient Golf Clubhouse and to our left is Swilken Bridge, spanning the Swilken Burn, which cuts through the course on its way to the North Sea. The small stone bridge has stood here for over 700 years, used by farmers to help their livestock across the burn. Today it is a photographic opportunity for golfers and tourists alike. Group shot! Six golf courses share these links today, the Old Course being the most famous and sought after. It is considered the oldest course in the world and is located on common ground. Golfers come from all over the world to play; it is after all ‘the home of golf’. You don't have to be a professional to play here though as ‘The Himalayas’, the nickname of the St Andrews Ladies Putting Club, is a famous putting course that lies between the Old Course and West Sands beach. It is open to the public during peak season and is suitable for all ages and abilities. We walk along the seafront to try out our putting skills on the famous hillocks!

Buoyed by a friendly game of ‘golf’ we head back along the Bruce Embankment, enjoying a view of West Sands, a fantastic dune-backed sand beach which runs for 3 kilometres adjacent to the Golf Links Courses. You can walk right to the edge of the Eden Estuary from here, so it is popular with walkers and runners. It's also a great swimming beach with lifeguards’ patrols during the peak season. The ‘Coast to Coast Walk’ which starts in Oban finishes in St Andrews; a 128-mile route, which is not waymarked, but there is plenty of advice online. The endpoint is the same as the start point, by dipping your toe in the ocean signifying coast to coast, so you’d end up on West Sands to mark that achievement. The dunes are the subject of ongoing restoration management due to coastal erosion and overuse. They protect the links from damage as well as being a Site of Special Scientific Interest. You may also recognise the beach from the opening scenes of ‘Chariots of Fire’ (1981). The scene was re-enacted in the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay and featured in the Opening Ceremony.

We reach the British Golfing Museum, which opened in 1990, sits across the road from the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. It is an award-winning attraction which tells you about the history of golf, keeps itself current and is highly interactive, so is awarded 5 stars by Visit Scotland. Behind the museum is Witch Hill, aptly named given its history. 

During the 16th and 17th centuries, witch trials were rife throughout the UK, and Fife was a particularly bad area where Covenanters conducted witch trials. Local tradition states that the accused in St Andrews were taken to a tidal pool below the cliff, known as ‘Witch Lake’, and thrown in with a thumb tied to an opposite toe. If they drowned, they were innocent, if they stayed afloat, they were guilty, then dragged up to Witch Hill and burned at the stake; a bit of a catch 22! The Martyrs’ Memorial, designed by William Nixon and erected at the top of the hill in 1842, isn't for those wrongly accused of witchcraft. The obelisk is a tribute to those who were executed here during the Scottish Reformation against the Catholic Church. 

The hill looks a much happier place today with the bandstand at its centre and St Andrews Aquarium on the cliffside. It is backed by the attractive Victorian houses, most of which are now hotels, which we admire as we join The Scores road, whose name is derived from the Scots word ‘scour’ for cliff top. The cliffs are sheer on our left and we can see the remains of a sea pool at the base of the cliffs behind the St Andrews Aquarium; it was open till 1978 and is in the area where the witches were ‘tested’!

We pass church and university buildings, as well as the Wardlaw Museum renamed in 2019 after Bishop Wardlaw, previously called the Museum of the University of St Andrews (MUSA). It is due to reopen late 2020/early 2021 after refurbishment; it features displays of objects from the university collection gathered over 6 centuries.

Reaching St Andrews Castle overlooking the bay, we take a visit to enjoy the views, visit the mines and learn of its history. The castle was the main residence of the bishops and the administrative centre for the church. It was destroyed a few times in its history, seeing several notable visitors, both friend and foe. It also served as a prison as it has a bottle dungeon, accessed by a trap door from the floor of the tower vault; prisoners were dropped through, then forgotten.

Archbishop Beaton, the last Scottish Cardinal before the Scottish Reformation, had the Protestant preacher, George Wishart, executed on Witch Hill. This led to his assassination in the castle in May 1546, after which the castle lay under siege for a year with the Protestants holding it hostage. During that time, the attackers began to mine under the castle walls hoping to undermine them, but the defenders retaliated by mining to intercept them. Eventually successful, an underground battle took place, but the siege was only settled upon the arrival of a French fleet. They destroyed the castle, capturing those inside including John Knox who spent 19 months as a galley slave; he later went on to lead the Scottish Reformation. The castle was rebuilt, a grand and elaborate fortress, and survived the Scottish Reformation to then fall into ruin at some point after 1689.

From the castle, we wander along the clifftop to the harbour passing the cathedral boundaries which were built in the 1500s to protect the monastery from an outbreak of disease. We pass the remains of the church of St Mary’s on the Rock, home to the Culdees, an order of Celtic monks who rejected the new monastic orders of the Middle Ages. They continued until the Scottish Reformation at which point the church was destroyed. From these remains on the cliff edge, we get a great view of the harbour, an estuary haven at the tidal mouth of Kinness Burn. The harbour is mentioned as early as 1222, but the sands were also used to beach boats, then cart the goods off at low tide. The harbour we see today dates from the 18th and 19th century. We walk down the slope to walk the length of the harbour pier with views over East Sands. Two student traditions take place here connected to their involvement in a shipwreck. In 1800 ‘Janet of MacDuff’ ran aground. John Honey, a student, with the aid of other students, entered the water tied to a rope and saved all 5 onboard. Every Sunday after chapel during term time students, wearing their red gowns, take part in the Pier Walk to commemorate his bravery; the busiest is always Freshers Week Sunday. On 30th April each year, The Gaudie takes place on the eve of the ‘May Morning Dip’. Students process by candlelight, again in their red gowns, led by pipers to the pier, where they cast a wreath into the sea in John Honey’s memory.

We retrace our steps, the cathedral ruins dominating the skyline, to enter the cathedral graveyard via a boundary wall gate. St Rule’s Tower dominates the graveyard area, once part of St Rule’s Church which held St Andrews relics, built just decades before the cathedral. The Augustinian monks who arrived here in 1123 extended it but it was too small by 1160. The cathedral and priory were built, the cathedral being consecrated in 1318, St Rule’s being reduced to how you see it today.

In June 1559 John Knox preached a rousing sermon in the Presbyterian church in town, after which the congregation went to the cathedral and destroyed any symbols of ‘popery’ they could find. Within a week the friars had been forced out of town and the cathedral ceased all activity and began to deteriorate. Discussions took place over several decades with regards to restoring the buildings, but by the late 1600s, the cathedral and priory had become a quarry, providing building materials for the development of many 17th and 18th century buildings across St Andrews, a common practice at the time.

It was 1826 before attention was turned to the ruins' preservation. It is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, as is St Andrews Castle. We wander through the ruins and tombstones, visiting the museum in the undercroft and what was once the canon's warming house in the priory area. The exhibits of carved stonework, uncovered in the cathedral area, date from Pictish times to just after the Scottish Reformation, and give a fascinating timeline paying tribute to masonry skills across the centuries. As for the relics? Today they are displayed at St Andrew's altar in the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Mary in Edinburgh.

We exit the cathedral onto North Street, passing St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum located in a 17th-century house in the heart of the old fisher town; a small museum dedicated to social history. On the corner of North Street with South Castle Street is North Point Cafe whose fame came about thanks to royalty. It was during Prince William's university years here that he met his future wife, Kate. In the early days of their relationship, they would often meet here for coffee.

We continue up North Street as far as the University’s St Salvator’s Chapel. Founded in 1450 it is a rare example of Late Gothic architecture. A mixture of old and new today, it is at the heart of student life at the University. We cut through College Street on to Market Street where we pause to take in the view of the attractive cobbled street, once the marketplace of the town and still the main shopping street. We cut through Logie’s Lane to see the statue of Hamish McHamish, a local cat celebrity, who became known to many as he wandered his favourite spots around the town. He inspired a book ‘Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About Town’ (2012) written by Susan McMullan and featured on BBC’s ‘The One Show’. A public donation campaign paid for the unveiling of a bronze statue of Hamish by Scottish sculptor, David Annand, in 2014, the same year Hamish died.

We are now on South Street heading down towards the cathedral again. The street is full of old architecture, mostly connected with the University. Before continuing down the street, we pop into Jannetta’s Gelateria to enjoy an ice cream from the family who have been selling artisan ices here for over 100 years. To the right the buildings are the library for St Leonard’s School; one of them, Queen Mary’s House, is a16th century merchant's house believed to have hosted Mary Queen of Scots in the 1560s.

Turning onto The Pends we pass under one of only 2 surviving gates or ‘ports’ of the town, the other being West Port at the top of South Street. At the end of The Pends we reach the shore, cross the footbridge at the far side of the harbour to join the Fife Coastal Path once more. It takes us beside East Sands and The Castle Course of St Andrews (the newest course opened in 2008) along the undulating coastal cliffs to reach the ‘Rock and Spindle’. Classified as a sea stack this is the remains of a volcanic plug which looks like a spinning wheel at the base with a basalt stack protruding from it, giving the landmark its name.

We press on past Fairmont St Andrews golf courses to Buddo Ness and on past Buddo Rock. The route is quite uneven here leading to the sandstone outcrop where we turn inland to Boarhills. We follow the path through fields before turning to the coast along Kenly Water, crossing a bridge en route to follow the rocky coastline interspersed with beaches past Babbet Ness and Airbow Point.

On entering Kingsbarns area we pass the Golf Links to reach Cambo Sands, golden sands stretching for 2 miles backed by dunes. Kingsbarns is a conservation village, and we are now in an area called East Neuk of Fife. Neuk is a Scots word for ‘corner’ and the area takes in the coastal villages from here, near Crail, to Earlsferry, Elie. The village name came from the barns that were used to store grain here before transport to Crail Castle and Falkland Palace. There are remains of a harbour at the beach which could once handle large ships for import and export of cargo.

Golf has been played on this part of the Cambo House Estate since 1793 and Cambo House lies not far from where we cross the Cambo Burn. The current house was built in the 19th century; its gardens are open to the public throughout the year, and you can stay at the house, which operates B&B and self-catering accommodation. Kingsbarns Distillery also produces single malt whisky on the estate.

We continue on past Balcomie Golf Links, walking Balcomie Beach where a path leads us to Constantine’s Cave. Local legend states that King Constantine I (an early Pictish king) was killed in this cave following a battle with the Danes in 874AD but there is some debate about this.

We approach Fife Ness, the most eastern point in Fife. Robert Stevenson attempted to build a lighthouse here, a circle cut in the Carr Rocks is still visible. Proving difficult, lightships were used to guide vessels through the area until a ‘squat’ lighthouse was constructed in 1975. From here we pass the Craighead Links course into the Kilminning Coast Wildlife Reserve, an area of rich grassland, salt marsh and coastal scrub. We pass a geological feature called Kilminning Castle near a disused airfield, once RAF Crail which closed in 1960. The strips are now used mostly as a motorsports centre though it is still possible to land a private plane if you make arrangements.

The East Neuk of Fife is known for its attractive historic fishing villages and Crail is the first in a number we’ll walk through on the Fife Estuary. It was already well settled by 800AD and thriving as a fishing village by the 1100s. It was made a Royal Burgh by William the Lion in 1178 and permission was granted in 1310 to hold a market on a Sunday by Robert the Bruce, an unusual move in those days. We pass through a large holiday park along the coastline to Roome Rocks, where we follow the paths and roads around Roome Bay heading into the centre of the village. We walk to the end of Kirkwynd arriving on Marketgate. Immediately opposite is Crail Parish Church which dates back to 1160, having had numerous additions and renovations over the centuries, it was last restored in 1963. Evidence of an 8th-century cross-slab shows that a church was on this site before the current building.

Marketgate was the medieval heart of Crail and was once the largest marketplace in Europe today a wide tree-lined street with small attractive houses on the south side and grander merchants’ mansions on the north side. As we wander down the street, we pass the village’s Mercat cross to the right of which is 9 Marketgate, Friars Court, dating to 1686 and the oldest house in Crail. At the end of Marketgate stands the Tolbooth and Town Hall on the junction with Tolbooth Wynd. The Tolbooth was built in 1598 housing council offices and a jail, the Town Hall followed in 1814. The form of the tower roof gives evidence of European influence at the time it was built, described as a Dutch spire. In front of the Tolbooth is Crail Museum and Heritage Centre; they run guided tours on Sunday afternoons during peak season.

We cross on to High Street, then down Castle Street onto Shoregate to reach the idyllic harbour. As the name of the street suggests, a royal castle did once stand on the cliffs overlooking the harbour in the 1100s. By the 1500s nothing remained but its moat. Not much is known of its history. A Victorian turreted garden wall gives a nod to its existence in the area it once stood. We spend time walking about the harbour, which thrived in medieval times due to the export of popular local fish products of salted herring and ‘Crail capon’; Crail capon being sun-dried or smoked haddock. We then climb Hen’s Ladder up to Anstruther Road to pick up the Fife Coastal Path again.