St Andrews Castle

St Andrews Castle stands on a rocky promontory above Castle Sands and the North Sea, at the heart of what was once Scotland’s ecclesiastical capital. It was built around 1200 by Bishop Roger de Beaumont and served for centuries as the residence of the bishops and later archbishops of St Andrews, who described it in their charters as their palace. Fought over repeatedly during the Wars of Scottish Independence, it was destroyed and rebuilt several times before Bishop Walter Trail reconstructed it around 1400, establishing much of the layout seen today. The castle is bound up with the Scottish Reformation. In 1546 Protestant conspirators murdered Cardinal David Beaton here and hung his body from a window. The reformers then held the castle through a long siege, during which attackers drove a mine through the rock and the defenders answered with a countermine; both tunnels survive and can still be entered. John Knox served as preacher to the garrison before its surrender in 1547. Beneath the north-west tower lies the notorious bottle dungeon, a bottle-shaped pit hewn from solid bedrock. Today the castle is a ruin cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, with a visitor centre interpreting its history.