There is more to St Andrews than golf and Prince William.

I took a drive to St. Andrews, just 14 miles from where I am staying, the week after I arrived.  What a beautiful and amazingly calm and quiet place.  The students at the famed University of St. Andrews were studying and taking their exams that week, so that was possibly the reason for the quiet.  Montana State University (MSU), where I received my 2nd bachelor's degree, is certainly nothing like St. Andrews, but walking by the school buildings reminded me of those wonderful school days. I graduated from MSU in 1996, after receiving my 2nd bachelor's degree - this time in Nursing.  I was in my mid-30's then and took university much more seriously on my second go-around, likely because I was paying for it myself.   

St Andrews is located on the east cost of Fife in Scotland and is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle, the brother of Saint Peter.  The town has a population of 16,680 and during the university term, students make up about 1/3 of the population.  The University of St Andrews is the 3rd oldest university in the English-speaking world and the oldest in Scotland.  It was founded between 1410 and 1414.  It's student body is quite diverse with 30% of students being international.  I remember first learning about St Andrews when Price William began university there in 2001.  The school became quite popular, with an increase of 44 percent in applications. There were a total of 9,200 applications that year, the majority from women (some hoping to become the future Queen, I am sure), for 1,200 spots.  This became known as the "Prince William factor."

Tuition fees were not charged in the UK for higher education until 1998.  The fees per academic year for undergraduate programs in UK universities, not including room & board, books, etc., were initially £1,000/$1,500 in 1998 and increased to £3,000/$4,600 in 2012.  In 2013, fees went up to as much as £9,000/$14,000, depending on the university.  Out of curiosity, I looked up the fees at St Andrews.  They are £1,820/$2,800 if you are from Scotland, £9,000/$14,000 if you are from other countries in the UK, and £14,450/$22,500 for international students.  In comparison, Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, where I received my first bachelor's degree back in 1986, now charges the equivalent of £5,000 or $8,523 per academic year. The University of California system charges £8,400/$13,200.  Montana State University, where I obtained my second degree, charges a bit less than the California State universities at £4300/$6,750 for residents, but non-residents (as I was back in 1996) pay a whopping £13,300/$20,715 a year.  Stanford University, where my nephew will be attending this year, is private and charges the equivalent of £27,440/$42,690 for tuition per year.  

Riley and I took a very long walk starting at the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral built in 1158, and the centre of the Medieval Catholic Church in Scotland until the 16th century Scottish Reformation.  During the Reformation, Catholic masses were outlawed, and in 1559, the building was stripped of its altars and images.  By 1561, it had been abandoned.  

 

The east tower on the left and St Rule's Tower to the right

The Pends is a mid-14th century large stone gatehouse of the Augustinian cathedral-priory of St Andrews. 

We also walked by the ruins of St Andrews Castle that are situated on a cliff to the north of the town.  It was first erected around 1200 as a residence, prison and fortress for the bishops.  The majority of the ruins seen now are from 1549 to 1571.  

West Sands Beach was the set for the opening scene in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire.  The scene was reenacted during the 2012 Olympics torch relay.

St. Andrews is known as the "home of golf."  Documents as early as 1552 show that golf was played on the links there. There are 7 golf courses, the most famous being the Old Course that dates back to medieval times and is an Open Championship course, at St. Andrews.  We walked by several of the golf shops and saw some golfers who had stopped for lunch, but we didn't spend time at the famed golf course itself. Odd fact of the day: In 1457, James II of Scotland banned golf because he felt that young men were playing too much golf instead of practicing their archery.  King James IV removed the ban in 1502 because he was a golfer himself.  

We passed by a coffee shop with a sign that said Prince William and the now Duchess of Cambridge Catherine (then called Kate Middleton) had their coffee there.  Being a closeted (or sometimes out-in-the-open) fan of the Royal Family, I spent a little time imagining what it was like when they both were in school there.  The paparazzi had agreed to let Prince William alone while he was in university and during their years at school, they were able to live a relatively normal (as normal could be) life. 

I was lucky enough to meet the most important "person" living in St. Andrews at the time - Hamish McHamish. Hamish is a ginger cat, born in 1999, who was originally "owned" by Marianne Baird, a retired BBC producer. When he was about a year old, he started spending more time away from home, spending most of his time in and around the houses and businesses on South Street. I was lucky enough to see him lounging in the window of a bookstore, one of his favorite places.