Give St Andrews two days. Walk the Old Course if you are here on a Sunday, then follow the Scores past the R&A World Golf Museum and the Wardlaw Museum to the castle and the cathedral ruins. Cross St Salvator's Quad, putt the Himalayas, and end on the West Sands. Keep a day for the East Neuk or the boat to the Isle of May.
St Andrews is the home of golf and of Scotland's oldest university, a town of about 16,500 on a headland in Fife. Three medieval streets run from the West Port to the cathedral ruins, with the links and the West Sands on one side and the harbour on the other.
Golf has been played on these links for six centuries, and on Sundays the Old Course closes to golfers and opens to everyone else. Walk out to the Swilcan Bridge and the 18th green without a tee time or a green fee.
About 119 metres long, it was the largest church ever built in Scotland, consecrated in 1318 with Robert the Bruce present. The grounds are free; the gable ends and the graveyard above the harbour are the reason to come.
The bishops' palace on the cliff was besieged in 1546 to 1547, when both sides tunnelled into the rock beneath it. The bottle dungeon, cut from solid rock under a tower, is the moment that stays with you.
Almost two miles of unbroken sand backed by dunes and the links, and the beach of the opening scene of Chariots of Fire. It is a 15-minute walk from the centre, and an award winner for more than thirty years.
The former British Golf Museum reopened in 2021 after a full redevelopment, right behind the R&A clubhouse and the Old Course's first tee. Give it two hours: the game's story from the earliest clubs and balls runs right up to the modern Open.
The heart of Scotland's oldest university, founded in 1413, with the chapel tower over North Street. The cobbled initials PH outside the gate mark where Patrick Hamilton was burned in 1528, and students step around them.
The university's museum on the Scores opens with its medieval maces and the story of Scotland's first university. Entry is free, and the terrace looks north over St Andrews Bay to the Eden Estuary.
The Ladies' Putting Club laid out its green in 1867, and the hilly ground added in 1893 gave it its nickname. A round costs £4 for adults and £2 for under-16s, and it is the cheapest way onto the links.
Eighteen acres beside the Kinness Burn, with glasshouses, a rock garden of more than 2,500 alpines and over 8,000 plant species. Under-18s and students go free, and so does everyone on the first Friday of the month.
The May Princess leaves Anstruther, about ten miles south, for the island nature reserve at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. Allow five hours, with two and a half to three ashore; puffins nest from April to mid-August.
Opened in 1897; it began as a 12-hole course for women and beginners.
Harry Colt's 1914 design, and the first Links course to open on Sundays.
The seventh Links course, opened in 2008 on the cliffs south-east of town.
A shorter course from 1993, laid out to complement the championship ones.
Nine holes and 1,520 yards, used for junior coaching and families.
A glass box over the bay, cooking Scottish seafood the Italian way since 2004.
Around 117 miles from Kincardine to Newburgh; walk south from the harbour.
Forest and dunes across the Eden Estuary, with seals on the sandbanks.
The Preservation Trust's house on North Street, reopened after a £1.8m redevelopment.
A holm oak of about 1740 and a thorn said to be planted by Mary, Queen of Scots.
Scotland's first design museum, by Kengo Kuma. The 99 bus runs to Dundee.
Scotland's international poetry festival, in St Andrews and online.
A student-run arts festival, usually with a ceilidh at the castle.
A spring pageant through the town, revived by the Kate Kennedy Club in 1926.
Students run into the sea at East Sands at sunrise, after a torchlit pier walk.
A medieval street fair that fills Market Street and South Street.
The pro-am played over the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.
A market, a ceilidh, a torchlit procession and fireworks for the town's saint.
The 155th Open returns to the Old Course, its 31st staging there.
St Andrews has no station. Leuchars, about 5 miles away on the Edinburgh to Dundee line, is the stop; the 99 bus takes about 20 minutes into town.
Up to every 10 minutes between St Andrews bus station, Leuchars station and Dundee, now on electric buses.
About 50 miles away. Stagecoach 787 runs to St Andrews bus station up to every two hours, around the clock, in about 90 minutes.
About 15 miles away, around 30 minutes by car, with direct flights from London.
Landed at Crail and sold on the harbour in summer.
Haddock in batter; Anstruther Fish Bar won UK shop of the year in 2009.
Made on South Street by the same family since 1908.
Hot-smoked haddock from just across the Tay, with protected status.
Smoked haddock, potato and onion soup.
A hot-water crust pie of minced mutton or beef; the Criterion bakes its own.
Haggis with mashed swede and potato.
Whipped cream, raspberries, toasted oats, honey and whisky.
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