Highlands Road Trip: St. Andrews

Exploring St. Andrew’s, Blair Atholl, & Kingussie in Fife & Tayside, Scotland

St. Andrew’s is a great day trip from Edinburgh or part of a road trip up to the Scottish Highlands. The latter was the case for us. We started our Highlands road trip in Edinburgh and headed across The Queensferry Crossing to St. Andrew’s. It is an hour from Edinburgh Airport where we had picked up our rental car.

An overview of our complete 10-Day Scottish Highlands Road Trip itinerary can be found here.

St. Andrew’s is best known for its golf courses and epic views of the North Sea. For us, it was a just a short stop to visit with my niece who is attending St. Andrew’s University. We parked in the metered parking on Market Street and were within walking distance of everything.

Above photo: St. Andrew’s, Scotland

St. Andrew’s University is the oldest university in Scotland and its buildings and squares date from the 16th century. My niece shared all kinds of interesting trivia with us as we walked the grounds and made our way over to our lunch spot, which was none other than Northpoint Cafe made famous by Will & Kate when they first started dating.

Above photos: Northpoint Cafe, St. Andrews University

St. Andrew’s Cathedral was just a short walk away from our lunch spot. The cathedral is in ruins, but it is still possible to envision the original structure with the help of the posted signs.

Above photos: St. Andrew’s Cathedral

As you leave the cathedral and start walking along The Scores, you can see St. Andrew’s Castle down at the sea front. In the interest of time, we didn’t walk all the way down to the castle, but enjoyed the views as we continued to walk towards the Old Course.

Above photo: St. Andrew’s Castle

Above photos: Life around St. Andrew’s

The Old Course was pretty neat to see in person – instead of on TV during The Open. Beautiful course! The Old Bridge is surprisingly small and you’ll have to wait your turn for a photo op in between rounds of golfers in play.

Above photos: St. Andrew’s Golf Course

We said our goodbyes and set our GPS to our next stop: Blair Atholl in Pitlochry, which was about an hour and a half northwest.

Blair Atholl Castle & Gardens is part of Scotland’s Historic Houses registry. If your visit to Scotland includes seeing multiple properties on the registry, I highly recommend purchasing their annual membership. Not only does it provide free entrance to the properties, it helps preserve and protect them for future generations.

Above photos: Blair Atholl Castle and Gardens

Blair Castle is, in a word, grand. As we approached the entrance of the castle, we were greeted with a bagpipe performance. Once inside, we were free to roam and enjoy the splendor of the immaculately maintained interiors. As you go from room-to-room, there is really a sense of the changing times and the different periods in Scotland’s history.

Above photos: Blair Atholl Castle and Gardens

Before heading up to Kingussie, we decided to take a little shopping detour to the House of Bruar, an upscale department store for Scottish tweeds, cashmere, and country clothing. We arrived just shortly before closing and didn’t have as much time as we had hoped. Thankfully, they have a wonderful website, so I was able to shop when I returned home.

Kingussie was just a short 45 minute drive north. We decided to squeeze in one last sight before checking-in at our hotel. Ruthven Barracks are the best preserved of the four barracks built in 1719 after the 1715 Jacobite rising. These were great ruins! When we were there at the end of daylight on a mostly cloudy day, there was such a moody aspect as we climbed up the old castle mound. The ruins are free to visit and are well-marked with informational signs to help you understand the purpose of each of the rooms.

Above photos: Ruthven Barracks

Alas, we arrived at our hotel, The Cross. Our host, Joe, described his place as “a restaurant with rooms.” Meaning, come for the food and wine – and then crash upstairs, which is exactly what we did. We really tried hard to avoid any chain hotels on this trip. Every place we stayed was a unique property with a location, history, or feature we thought would enhance our experience in the Highlands. Joe’s place won hands-down for the friendliest host and best restaurant.

Above photos: The Cross at Kingussie

Next up: Continue reading about our trip through the Highlands as we journeyed on in the Cairngorms, visited with the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd, and put our rain gear on for a Quad Bike tour!

To continue to Day 3: Cairngorms National Park of our Scottish Highlands Road Trip, click here.