“We have new restaurants, refurbished hotels and our university has eclipsed Oxford and Cambridge in the 2024 rankings,” says St Andrews-born Blue Badge Guide Val Eglinton.
“It’s no wonder distilleries are starting up here, luxury stores are moving in and Tiger Woods wants to open a sports bar in St Andrews with Justin Timberlake.”
Eglinton is trying to convince me that St Andrews is much more than Europe’s largest public golf complex and the sport’s most famous course. It doesn’t have to. The street ahead of us was closed for the “Big Hoolie” ahead of St Andrews Day. Locals and visitors alike sway around a crowded ceiling backed by a raucous live band.
“This is just like those movies about Scotland,” enthuses a visitor I chatted with from Chicago before being swallowed by complete strangers inside the thrilling Dashing White Sergeant.
A street ceiling is the visible manifestation of the “Town and Dress” ethos that burns throughout this ancient mainstay of Fife. The population may not even reach 17,000, but by recruiting 10,000 students, St Andrews is also extending a warm invitation to the countless golfers and walkers who seek out the eponymous saint on the new Fife Pilgrim’s Path.
But change is clearly crackling in the cool air of late autumn. I avoid the Old Course and shops carrying Royal clearances, which the late Queen granted long before Kate and William studied there. Still, why stay in the old style when you can embrace new charms in a town that feels no less Royal and Ancient? Spoiled Life sets the tone: the ground floor offers impeccably curated vintage clothing and lifestyle pieces; upstairs, craft Fife-roasted coffee served in cups recycled from coffee husks. Very new St Andrews.
St Andrews has so much to fit in that it needs three main streets: North Street, Market Street and South Street. All three would make real estate show producers salivate. St Andrews Wetherspoons does not. Indeed, I find Scottish brewery big guns BrewDog to be quiet, while St Andrews Brewing Company piles on brewed beers within walking distance. Of course there is a farmers market; There is also a monthly “maker market”.
Woods and Timberlake won’t be eating at McDonalds or Burger King when they visit. St Andrews doesn’t play sports either. Instead they can enjoy views of the Old Course and Fife lobster ravioli at Seafood Ristorante or enjoy one of Scotland’s best fish dishes at Tailend. I see that independent restaurant Little Italy is packed, although it continues to expand, while Pizza Express next door is half empty.
Overlooking the Old Course, Haar was opened just before Covid by Masterchef: The Professionals finalist Dean Banks, who creates taste-worthy tasting menus full of local produce. The smoked St Andrews Bay lobster is amazing. But this is St Andrews, so there’s no need to rest: as the “Big Hoolie” finally settles down, attention turns to Banks, who is opening a new gastro bar called Dune that night. It greets with an evocative sign: “Where the sea crashes into the sky.”
With a skyline full of such revered towers to protect, developers don’t have the option of reaching for the sky. Instead they went west. St Andrews West is a new development that will eventually result in hundreds of new sustainable homes including retail, healthcare and leisure. The first stage has already opened.
If St Andrews had been all flashy and new, it might not have caught the attention of Woods and Timberlake. They are keen to reinvent the B-list art deco New Picture House as the latest luxury T-Squared Social sports bar. There seems to be a limit to local tolerance for change at any cost; We face a visible backlash when we press against the redevelopment of a much-loved cinema. Let’s also talk about the petition.
At the Old Course Hotel, the most luxurious venue in the city (itself planning a major refurbishment in 2024), doorman Niall Campbell has seen it all before: “I’ve been working here since 2008 and St Andrews’ old favorites never really change . We are unique with our history, beaches and golf. And we’re still a real place. This is really important; No matter how much money you have, you can’t even play golf here on Sunday.”
I finish my visit with a Chariots of Fire-style run along the beach with more St Andrews icons, accompanied by Douglas Clement. As a local golf enthusiast, Clement was so fed up with being asked why there wasn’t a whiskey distillery, “I thought I’d fill it in and build my own.” He did. Kingsbarns now launches single malts, joining other local distilleries Eden Mill and Lindores Abbey.
“Some people worry about change, but St Andrews has always reinvented itself from time immemorial,” says Clement, looking across the West Sands towards the North Sea view, which has remained unchanged since the first round was played at the Old Course. Surfers, wild swimmers and land yachtsmen are at the forefront.
“More than the golf, university or shops, it is the authenticity, local spirit and sense of community that draws people to this wonderful corner of Scotland. “I hope and think this will never change.”