The last part of Scotland we had yet to explore was the east coast so with that in mind we set out for St. Andrews. People had been asking me if I was going to golf at St. Andrews and when I arrived there it made sense why. St. Andrews is regarded as the "home of golf" and was where the game was originally created. The town has 6 different golf courses and hosts the British Open.
The town is mainly a college town with St. Andrews being the center of the town and buildings belonging to the University spread throughout. We stopped at the Wardlaw museum which was the University museum that detailed the history of the school and town. My favorite part of St. Andrews was how it was situated right on the coast so you had great views of the ocean.
The biggest attraction in St. Andrews is the cathedral and castle ruins. Although we did not pay the admission fee to walk amongst the ruins, they were pretty impressive from what we could see. The cathedral looked massive and spanned such a huge amount of space. Both the castle and cathedral had been attacked at the time of Scottish reformation hence why all that remains are the ruins.
Someone had given us a recommendation to eat at a Haddock restaurant in the town of Arbroath about an hour further up north. However, when we got there all the restaurants were closed for lunch except for a fish and chips place so we settled for that and ice cream.
Our last stop was Dunnottar castle. Scotland is home to tons of castles however most lie in ruins now due to past religious and political conflicts. A lot of the castles we had planned to go to ended up being closed for the season so we had to make do with our options. Dunnottar castle was also in ruins but given its location, it was strikingly gorgeous. The castle was situated right on the ocean on a piece of landed that jutted out. It was very remote and felt like it would have been hard to get anywhere back in the day. The castle grounds were huge and all of the roofs had been destroyed leaving only the walls intact. You could clearly tell what each room was used for though, from the kitchen to the king's bedchamber. The most memorable room was the prison cell called the "Whig's Vault" where they held 200 prisoners in 1685 who refused to accept the King as the head of church. The prisoners were left to starve and most died there. I thought they did an excellent job presenting the history of the castle and found it fascinating to learn what each room had been used for.
In nearly every room you could see the ocean through one of the windows. At one point something caught my eye and I looked out to see a pod of dolphins jumping and having fun. Dolphins are pretty majestic creatures and I enjoyed watching them from the cliff the castle sat on.
For our last dinner we ate at a Scottish tapas place right next to the hotel we were staying at and enjoyed our last Scottish meal.
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