St Andrews
A grey stone town on the Fife coast with a ruined cathedral, Scotland's oldest university and the links where golf began, an hour from the business terminal at Edinburgh.
- Arrival
- Edinburgh Airport · EDI
- To the city
- About an hour by car across the Forth
- Private jets
- Signature terminal at Edinburgh; Dundee closer, 1,400 m runway
- Best time
- June to August
The city
The cathedral, the college and the links.
St Andrews is small enough to walk end to end. At the east end are the ruins of the cathedral, once the largest church in Scotland, with the twelfth-century St Rule's Tower still standing over them, and the castle on its rock, bishop's palace, fortress and state prison for four and a half centuries, with a mine of the 1500s and a bottle dungeon cut into the stone. The university dates from 1413, and its museum on The Scores looks out to sea.
At the west end the town simply becomes the Old Course. Ten courses run along this shore, and the game was invented here; those without a tee time take the guided walk round the Old. West Sands stretches north of the first hole, and the Fife Pilgrim Way, on tracks used from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, ends in the town. Summer brings the best weather, with highs of 16 to 18 °C and the longest days of the year.
Arriving
Edinburgh, then over the Forth.
Edinburgh Airport is about an hour from St Andrews by car, across the Forth and up through Fife. Dundee Airport is closer, but its scheduled service to London Heathrow ends on 23 October 2026.
- Amsterdam 1 h 15
- Paris 1 h 30
- Tel Aviv 5 h 25
- San Francisco 10 h 45 long-range jet
- Singapore 14 h 20 long-range jet
When to go
June to August.
Cool, bright and changeable. Come from June to August, for highs of 16 to 18 °C, seventeen hours of daylight, and June the driest of the three months. Spring and autumn are playable in a windproof; from November to February the highs drop to 5 or 6 °C and the light goes early.
- 5° J 79 7°
- 6° F 53 6°
- 8° M 57 6°
- 10° A 48 7°
- 13° M 61 9°
- 16° J 54 11°
- 18° J 60 13°
- 18° A 71 14°
- 15° S 70 13°
- 12° O 73 11°
- 8° N 65 10°
- 6° D 67 8°
What to see and do
Days in and around St Andrews.
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Landmark
The Old Course
The links where the game began, one of ten courses in the town, walkable on a guided tour.
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Landmark
The cathedral and St Rule's Tower
Ruins of what was once Scotland's largest church, and a twelfth-century tower with the whole of Fife below.
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Landmark
The castle
Bishop's palace and state prison on the rocks, with a sixteenth-century siege mine and the bottle dungeon.
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Golf
Kingsbarns Golf Links
Kyle Phillips laid out this links along the Fife shore south of St Andrews, and it opened for play in July 2000.
Official site -
Golf
Carnoustie Golf Links
Across the Tay, the Championship Course has hosted eight Open Championships, most recently in 2018, with the Burnside and Buddon courses beside it.
Official site -
Culture
The R&A World Golf Museum
Opposite the R&A Clubhouse, its galleries trace the game from its origins and display more than a hundred historic clubs.
Official site -
Culture
V&A Dundee
Kengo Kuma designed this design museum on the Tay waterfront, opened in 2018, where the Scottish Design Galleries hold the restored Mackintosh Oak Room.
Official site -
Nature
St Andrews Botanic Garden
Eighteen acres in the town hold a rock garden, rhododendron glade, pinetum, pond and woodland walks.
Official site -
Nature
Fife Coastal Path
From Kincardine to Newburgh the trail covers about 117 miles, and St Andrews lies on the section between Cambo Sands and Leuchars.
Official site -
Food & wine
Kingsbarns Distillery
Tours of this whisky distillery in a restored farm steading on the Cambo Estate end in a tasting room; its first cask was filled in December 2014.
Official site
On the calendar
Dates to plan around.
Dates as published by the organisers. Runways, hotels and slots fill early around these weeks: the sooner we know, the more choice you have.
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2 Jul 2027
Cycling
Tour de France Grand Départ
The 2027 Tour de France starts in Edinburgh with a stage to Carlisle, before stages in England and Wales.
Edinburgh, about 49 km away
In 8 months
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12–18 Jul 2027
Golf
The Open
The oldest golf major, run by The R&A, held in 2027 on the Old Course at St Andrews.
Old Course, St Andrews Links
In 8 months
Where to stay
From the 17th hole to Perthshire.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa New to the MICHELIN Keys in 2026 with one Key, looking straight onto the 17th hole and West Sands, with the Kohler Waters Spa and its own course, The Duke's.
- The Gleneagles Hotel Scotland's only three-Key hotel, in Perthshire, with Restaurant Andrew Fairlie and its two stars.
- Fairmont St Andrews A 520-acre estate on the cliffs above the North Sea, ten minutes from the centre, with two courses of its own, The Torrance and Kittocks, and a sixteen-metre pool in the spa.
- Rusacks St Andrews In the MICHELIN hotel selection, 123 rooms over the 18th hole of the Old Course since the late nineteenth century, with the restaurant 18 and The Bridge brasserie.
Where to dine
A star in the Fife lanes, two at Gleneagles.
From the MICHELIN Guide: two starred tables, and three more from its selection in the town itself.
- Restaurant Andrew Fairlie Two Michelin stars Modern ££££ Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder
- The Peat Inn One Michelin star Modern ££££ Peat Inn, six miles south-west
- Haar MICHELIN Guide Modern ££££ St Andrews
- The Seafood Ristorante MICHELIN Guide Seafood ££££ St Andrews
- Ondine MICHELIN Guide Seafood £££ St Andrews
Elsewhere in United Kingdom
More reasons to come.
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London
Mayfair, the West End, and Farnborough or Biggin Hill for the jets.
- Edinburgh The Royal Mile, the Georgian New Town, and the festival in August.
- Oxford The colleges and the Cotswolds beyond, with a business airport at Kidlington.
- Bath Georgian crescents and the Roman baths.
- Ascot Royal Ascot in June, forty minutes west of London.
- St Ives Harbour, galleries and the beaches of Cornwall.
Flying to St Andrews?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.