Day 26 - Crail

12 August 2014

Accommodation – Hazelton Guest House

Weather – very overcast in the morning, intermittent rain and windy

Temperature – mid teens with a very cool chill factor

Well, the weather gods were still having a merry time and our plans to walk to St Andrews were thwarted as it was still very gusty with intermittent rain and low dark clouds.

Undeterred, we drove to St Andrews, the home of golf and a university city.   After a short drive around we eventually found a parking spot in the main street.  The town is very busy at the moment as it is in the third day of a four day fair which is held annually.  We walked to the links courses situated very near the town and saw many keen golfers teeing up – the wind was blowing and everyone was rugged up.  The West Sands Beach, featured in the movie Chariots of Fire sits next to the Old Course and as the tide was out it presented a very vast area of sand.

A familiar sight for golf lovers....The Old Course and very exclusive clubhouse.

The West Sands Beach......can't you just hear the music!

 David standing at the 18th hole....personally, I prefer the 19th!

Death by misadventure.....or, in reality, Hurricane Bertha. 

Over 47 thousand rounds of golf are played on the Old Course each year.  The main clubhouse is very exclusive and is positioned near the 18^th hole.  As we wandered around St Andrews we noticed there were many golfing shops.

From the Old Course we walked to the other end of town to St Andrews cathedral which is now in ruins.  It really is an amazingly big area which is maintained with beautifully manicured lawns surrounding the cathedral and old headstones.

Magnificent and vast.

On the site as well, sits the St Rules Tower which was built in 1150 and once formed part of a very old church looking over the ocean.

I kid you not....mobile Bingo at the fair!

A couple at our guesthouse recommended Mitchell’s Restaurant for lunch and we found that in the main street.  It was heated very warmly so I had to peel off many layers before I expired from the heat.  The homemade mushroom soup and artisan bread went down very well followed by sticky toffee pudding…..the eating tour continues!

Once back in Crail, we made our way to the museum where the enthusiastic volunteers had been searching the archives for some of my family history.  Luckily, a PHD student had mapped out the Crail graveyard near the church and two graves belonging to the family had been also photographed.

 The little toppled headstone in the middle is my great great great grandparents' grave.  Fortunately, the museum gave me a copy of a photo of the headstone before it toppled face down in the ground.  It is covered with thick green moss.

Her Purpleness standing in front of the Crail Kirk alongside another set of great great great grandparent's' headstone.  The family didn't move far from the area....until, of course, they headed to Australia!

As we now had the positions of my long ago ancestors, it was an easy task finding the headstones.  Unfortunately, one (dated 1864) has toppled on its face since the photo but another is standing tall next to the rear of the church.

Still raining, but we tried for another view of Crail Harbour.

After our busy day, we had a quenching drink at our now local pub, The Golf Inn Hotel where we picked up a local paper that told us the previous day had been the wettest in the UK for the year! Our friends who had travelled north were cut off by flooding and landslides on their way to Durness and had to be diverted to Inverness.  Once there, they couldn't find any accommodation so had to spend the night in their car.  This certainly makes for great travel stories - once your back recovers.

After a busy day it was tea, sandwiches and cake in front of our tv for dinner.  Touring can be tiring!  .

All in all, it has been a very satisfying day despite Hurricane Bertha’s determination to stick around.