St Andrews Cathedral

William de Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrews who rebuilt and dedicated the cathedral in 1318

The cathedral was founded to supply more accommodation than the older church of St. Regulus (St. Rule) afforded. This older church, located on what became the cathedral grounds, had been built in the Romanesque style. Today, there remains the square tower, 33 metres (108 feet) high, and the quire, of very diminutive proportions. On a plan of the town from about 1531, a chancel appears, and seals affixed to the city and college charters bear representations of other buildings attached. To the east is an even older religious site, the Church of St Mary on the Rock, the Culdee house that became a Collegiate Church.

Work began on the new cathedral in 1158 and continued for over a century. The west end was blown down in a storm and rebuilt between 1272 and 1279. The cathedral was finally completed in 1318 and featured a central tower and six turrets; of these remain two at the east and one of the two at the western extremity, rising to a height of 30 metres (100 feet). On the 5th of July it was consecrated in the presence of King Robert the Bruce, who, according to legend, rode up the aisle on his horse.

A fire partly destroyed the building in 1378; restoration and further embellishment were completed in 1440.

The cathedral was served by a community of Augustinian Canons, the St Andrews Cathedral Priory, which were successors to the Culdees of the Celtic church.

Greyfriar (Franciscan) and Blackfriar (Dominican) friars had properties in the town by the late 15th century and possibly as late as 1518.

St Rule's Tower and remains of St Rule's Church's western turrets as seen from the former courtyard. Photo taken on June 12th, 2023.

Recent view of the St Rule's Tower, remains of St Rule's Church's western turrets and the graveyard beneath, 10 October 2022.

The ruins of the nave of St. Andrews Cathedral

Remains of the arcade that used to support the main hall of the cathedral in the Middle Ages.

Archway over main west door, St Andrews Cathedral

Historic view of St Andrews Cathedral

The St Andrews Sarcophagus.

In June 1559 during the Reformation, a Protestant mob incited by the preaching of John Knox ransacked the cathedral; the interior of the building was destroyed. The cathedral fell into decline following the attack and became a source of building material for the town. By 1561 it had been abandoned and left to fall into ruin.[1]

At about the end of the sixteenth century the central tower apparently gave way, carrying with it the north wall. Afterwards large portions of the ruins were taken away for building purposes, and nothing was done to preserve them until 1826. Since then it has been tended with scrupulous care, an interesting feature being the cutting out of the ground-plan in the turf. The principal portions extant, partly Norman and partly Early Scottish, are the east and west gables, the greater part of the south wall of the nave and the west wall of the south transept.

At the end of the seventeenth century some of the priory buildings remained entire and considerable remains of others existed, but nearly all traces have now disappeared except portions of the priory wall and the archways, known as The Pends.

• Roger de Beaumont (bishop) (d. 1202)
• William Wishart (d. 1279)
• William de Lamberton (1328, on the north side of the high altar)
• William Fraser (bishop of St Andrews) (1297, his heart was buried in the wall of the church by his successor, William de Lamberton)
• William de Landallis (1385, in the church's vestry)
• James Kennedy (bishop) (1465, in a magnificent tomb which he had caused to be built in St Salvator's Chapel, the ruins of which are still visible)
• Andrew Forman (d. 1521)

• Very Rev John Adamson DD
• John Anderson, Principal of St Leonards College
• Rev Alexander Anderson (1676-1737) son of above
• Rev Prof George Buist DD
• Robert Chambers
• Rev Prof George Cook DD FRSE
• Rev Prof John Cook DD FRSE
• Rev Prof William Crawford DD father of Thomas Jackson Crawford
• Sir Robert Anstruther Dalyell
• Prof James Donaldson (classical scholar)
• Adam Ferguson
• Andrew Forman
• Rev Prof James Gillespie
• Rev Prof Thomas Gillespie, Professor of Humanity
• Robert Haldane (mathematician)
• Thomas Halyburton
• Matthew Forster Heddle
• George Hill (minister)
• Prof Henry David Hill
• Rev Prof James Hunter
• Prof Thomas Jackson FRSE
• David Miller Kay, military hero, author and missionary
• Prof Peter Redford Scott Lang, mathematician
• Rev Prof John McGill LLD, translator of the Old Testament
• Norman MacLeod (The Wicked Man)
• Young Tom Morris
• Old Tom Morris
• William Henry Murray
• Rev Francis Nicoll DD Principal of St Salvator's College, St Andrews
• Hugh Lyon Playfair
• Rev James Playfair (minister) (memorial only)
• Lt Col Sir Robert Lambert Playfair LLD, soldier and author
• Prof Alexander Roberts
• Allan Robertson
• Rev Professor Daniel Robertson DD (1755-1817)
• Rev Prof Samuel Rutherford
• Saint Andrew (partial remains)
• Very Rev Robert Small (1732-1808) Moderator in 1791
• William Spalding (writer)
• Very Rev Prof Alexander Stewart DD Principal of St Andrews University in 1915, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1911
• Rev Prof John Trotter
• Alexander Watson, Provost of St Andrews
• Major John and Lady Catherine Whyte-Melville (the large monument in the far corner of the churchyard)
• Prof William Wright (orientalist)

• Col Robert Hope Moncrieff Aitken, Victoria Cross recipient
• Fr George Angus, first Roman Catholic priest in St. Andrews since the Reformation
• Warington Baden-Powell founder of the Sea Scouts
• Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
• Prof John Birrell
• Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd
• Sir Napier Burnett
• Sir Guy Colin Campbell
• Reginald Fairlie
• William Lewis Ferdinand Fischer, FRS
• James Ross Gillespie, architect
• Sir James Heriot-Maitland
• Sir John Home
• Andrew Kirkaldy (golfer)
• Vice-Admiral Dashwood Fowler Moir, famed for his actions in the Battle of Jutland and who lost his life protecting the Atlantic Convoy
• Charles Metcalfe Ochterlony, 2nd baronet Ochterlony
• James Bell Pettigrew
• Lyon Playfair, Baron Playfair
• William Smoult Playfair
• Prof Thomas Purdie FRS
• Andrew Maitland Ramsay LLD FRSE
• Prof David George Ritchie
• Prof John Tulloch
• Charles Wordsworth