Why you should visit St Andrews, the Scottish town that is at its best in winter – before the golfers return and take over

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It’s a busy morning on the Fife Coastal Path, simply south of St Andrews. A trio of deer eke their method alongside this wild shoreline, mirrored by a brace of North Sea bottlenose dolphins. A Highland cow joins me briefly on a grass-tufted reduce by way of the historical rock. I skirt a golf course, however there aren’t any golfers. Welcome to St Andrews in winter.

“St Andrews is still St Andrews in winter, with most shops and restaurants open. You just get to enjoy them without the crowds,” says a smiling Douglas Clement, who joins me for a stroll alongside the East Sands that heralds my arrival into town. Clement is the dwelling embodiment of there being extra to St Andrews than simply golf: “As a caddie, clients often complained there was no local distillery, so I set up my own.”

Clement’s Kingsbarns Distillery is not alone, with Eden Mill and Lindores opening their very own distilleries close by in a bona fide Fife whisky renaissance. Eden Mill boast a glowing store on Market Street; I pop in for certainly one of their scrumptious sherry-tinged drams.

There is no denying that the cash that pours from the eight municipal golf programs – Europe’s biggest public golf complicated – helps gas the distilleries (and way more), however even in summer season golf is not allowed to dominate. No matter who you are, you can’t play the well-known Old Course on a Sunday. Instead, it is turned over to meandering households and canine walkers.

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St Andrews could also be eulogised as the “home of golf”, and the R&A – the native golf membership who’ve gone on to preside over the international sport – could also be certainly one of the world’s oldest golf equipment (based in 1754), however they’re actually the Royal and Not So Ancient, as St Andrews was the website of Christian burials even centuries before the eponymous saint’s relics got here right here in AD 877. The Vikings have been common guests too: certainly, man has thrived right here by the broad, protecting bay, tucked between two broad sand seashores, since Mesolithic occasions.

The University of St Andrews wasn’t conjured up simply to play Cupid to Will and Kate, both. Founded in 1413 as Scotland’s first college, principal professor Dame Sally Mapstone goals to develop the 10,000-strong pupil physique by 50 per cent by 2030 – exceptional in a town of solely 17,000 inhabitants.

It is not simply the college’s wealthy historical past that breathes past the greens in St Andrews. Yes, there is a golf museum, however way more fascinating is St Andrews Castle, the place bloody homicide kickstarted the brutal Reformation in the sixteenth century. I delve down a siege tunnel that presents a chilling descent into the previous. The ruins of St Andrews Cathedral are best loved in winter, the place you can wander alone with ghosts.

The chill of gravestones, and an east coast solar with solely ever simply sufficient heat to forestall your bones snapping, eases with the heat of the town’s trio of procuring streets. St Andrews doesn’t do McDonalds, Burger King or Wetherspoons. There is Pizza Express but it surely’s empty, gazing subsequent door jealously at lately expanded native indie Little Italy. I discover Scottish punk brewer BrewDog quiet, however native guys, the St Andrews Brewing Company, struggling to pour pints quick sufficient.

St Andrews does do chains – I wander by Costa, Starbucks and Pret, however for each certainly one of these there is additionally one thing impartial like Spoiled Life. Boutique vogue and Scandi-Scot stylish houseware tempt right here, alongside the best matcha latte this aspect of Milngavie. White Company opened in 2023 as the newest upscale retailer, however there is way more native flavour with Orkney’s Sheila Fleet, Johnstons of Elgin and the Isle of Skye Candle Company.

Local Blue Badge information Val Eglinton weaves me round the outlets. She is a strolling advert for St Andrews. “I moved away, but it’s such a special town it drew me back,” she says. “I love that unlike many ‘tourist towns’ in Scotland, St Andrews is open for business year-round.”

On a crisp December day, I snare a lunch slot and not using a reservation at Haar; in summer season, when the golf wealth engulfs St Andrews, getting a desk is nigh on unimaginable. It’s a spot to savour Dean Bank’s elegant culinary creations. Such is the rising out-of-season demand since the pandemic, although, that this MasterChef: The Professionals finalist has simply opened a brand new enterprise in town: Dune, which specialises in cocktails and sharing plates.

I stroll the huge, empty West Sands and yomp sections of the Fife Coastal Path untrammelled by one other human soul. I do discover welcoming firm simply off the path at my resort. The Fairmont St Andrews is an actual retreat simply to the south, with views to the spire-studded skyline and smoked lobster from St Andrews Bay; there’s crab from Fife’s East Neuk, too. I even catch life-affirming sparkles of the Northern Lights wandering throughout the resort’s golf programs, on the method all the way down to the sea cliffs.

On my final morning I lastly succumb, descending by the flurry of golf outlets tucked away like a personal membership round Golf Place. I stride by the grand headquarters of the R&A and arrive at the Old Course, the world’s most feted course.

Mark Twain needn’t fear although – he famously declared golf “a good walk spoiled” – as I’m solely right here for the Old Course Hotel. No golf, only a therapeutic massage at the solely Kohler Waters spa outdoors the US, adopted by lunch at the Jigger Inn, each housed in the cosseted – and mercifully quiet – world of the Old Course Hotel.

Niall Campbell, the Old Course Hotel’s concierge, who has labored right here since 2008, beams: “Winter is a great time to visit St Andrews as it’s far less busy.” The well-known hyperlinks course is mirrored in his eyes and there’s no escaping the lure of the town’s best-known sport: “It is actually a great time for golf, too, as we’ve got fast draining courses and there are far fewer golfers about.”

I’m nonetheless not tempted to select up a golf membership. Not now I’ve found one other St Andrews alive with galloping dolphins, swathes of historical past, boat-fresh seafood and very good impartial outlets; a St Andrews that is at its best outdoors summer season.

Travel necessities

How to get there

Take the Caledonian Sleeper and wake in Leuchars; it’s 10 minutes to St Andrews by bus or taxi. LNER function three trains a day to the town.

How to remain there

Stay at the Fairmont St Andrews for sea views, a swimming pool, native produce and – sure – golf.

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