Historic St. Andrews and surrounding Scottish countryside

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I was lucky enough to score a fascinating work trip to audit part of Constellation Brands up in Scotland. I went up the weekend before I had to start work in order to get in a quick trip to the Edinburgh Castle and onto what I really wanted to see in Scotland, St. Andrewsand the famous Old Course. It was a typically bleak March day in Scotland and we drove through lots of green rolling hills on our way to St. Andrews. St. Andrews itself is a pretty little town and we parked just near the university where Prince William and his girlfriend Kate attend (although being Saturday there was nobody around). We went to the very large and impressive ruins of St Andrews Cathedral, which I'm sure in its day was an incredibly grand, impressive cathedral but these days is just a bunch of old rocks.

Then it was off to the golf club where I marvelled at the old clubhouse and wandered up the 18th hole. As I did, I couldn't help but wonder why on earth the game was invented in this place, a bleak and incredibly windy piece of land on the east coast of Scotland. If there was ever a place where I wouldn't fancy spending several hours outside chasing around a little white ball, this was it! In any case there was something mystical about the place, not sure if it was just the low lying cloud and howling gale that made it mystical but it was well worth the visit and I was glad I didn't fork out the 200 quid to play a round in this weather!

My work week in Scotland took me to some pretty quaint old places. The first stop was working in Forfar, which is not really a town, so we stayed at the nearest town of Kinross. The hotel that we stayed at had the usual facilities, plus a curling rink! I think I can safely say it will be the one and only time that I stay at a hotel with a curling rink! The second half of the week was spent in an even more obscure place called Strathmore, which had a population of about 30 and mostly farmers. So much so that the only accomodation was a B&B at a farmhouse. The whole house stunk of animals and mud was trawled through the farmhouse everywhere. While the accommodation wasn't ideal, the hospitality was typically Scottish where there warmth offsets the bleaknesses of the place. The breakfast there was amazing. It certainly was an eye-opening week in the remote parts of Scotland!

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