St Andrews

The ancient city on Scotland's east coast has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. Legend claims that the bones of St Andrew were brought from Patras in Greece by a monk called Regulus in about AD 390. Historical evidence tends to lean more heavily towards the relics arriving in the possession of a bishop fleeing from England almost 400 years later.

Yet their presence in the city which took his name brought pilgrims from all parts of the known world. St Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland and the city grew in size, prestige and wealth. As early as 1123 the famous stretch of linksland which had been left by the receding waters of the North Sea was granted by King David I to the bishops who controlled St Andrews. Through a series of charters and confirmations the rights of local citizens to the links have been protected ever since.

The country's oldest university was founded here in 1413 and golf was believed to be a popular sport at that time. Certainly it was taxing the minds and bodies of the local population by 1457 when King James II banned the game by act of the Scottish Parliament because archery practice, which was necessary to the defence of the realm, was being neglected.

By the beginning of the 16th century the population had grown to 14,000 and at times of religious and commercial festivals more than 300 ships would fill the small harbour and crowd St Andrews Bay. Local golfers shared the links with monarchs, ambassadors, bishops and university academics. Mary Queen of Scots and James VI were both visitors to the town.

Yet the reformation stripped St Andrews of its religious significance, the university was in danger of being moved to Perth and the cathedral once attended by Robert the Bruce lay in ruins when the Society of St Andrews Golfers, later to become the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, was formed in 1754.

Within a century the fortunes of the ancient city had been restored and its reputation as the Home of Golf firmly established. Today it attracts pilgrims of a sporting rather than religious nature, all of them intent on playing the world's oldest surviving golf course.