St Andrews Castle

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St. Andrews Castle
St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland
The ruins of St Andrews Castle
St. Andrews Castle
Coordinates	56°20′N 2°47′W / 56.34°N 2.79°W / 56.34; -2.79
Site information
Owner	Historic Environment Scotland
Controlled by	Bishops of St Andrews
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Built	c.1200
Built by	Roger de Beaumont
In use	Until c.1689
Materials	stone

St Andrews Castle is a ruin located in the coastal Royal Burgh of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. The castle sits on a rocky promontory overlooking a small beach called Castle Sands and the adjoining North Sea. There has been a castle standing at the site since the times of Bishop Roger (1189–1202), son of the Earl of Leicester. It housed the burgh’s wealthy and powerful bishops while St Andrews served as the ecclesiastical centre of Scotland during the years before the Protestant Reformation. In their Latin charters, the Archbishops of St Andrews wrote of the castle as their palace, signing, "apud Palatium nostrum."^[1]

The castle's grounds are now maintained by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.^[2] The site is entered through a visitor centre with displays on its history. Some of the best surviving carved fragments from the castle are displayed in the centre, which also has a shop.