Spring Tide Going Out West Sands Beach St Andrews Fife Scotland

Tour Scotland Spring 4K travel video of the tide going out by rocks at the West Sands beach below the Bruce Embankment on visit to St Andrews, Fife. West Sands is about a 15 minute walk from the town centre. There is plenty of car parking. West Sands extends for almost 2 miles and is famous for the opening scenes of the film Chariots of Fire. Saint Andrew was from Copernicum, and like his brother Simon Peter, he was a fisherman. One legend builds upon Andrew’s extensive travels, claiming that he actually came to Scotland and built a church in Fife. This town is now called St Andrews, and the church became a centre for evangelism, and pilgrims came from all over Britain to pray there. Another ancient legend recalls how it was after the death of Andrew, sometime in the 4th century, that several of his relics where brought to Fife by Rule, a native of Patras. Andrew was first hailed as Scotland’s patron saint in 832, after Oengus II led an army of Picts and Scots to victory in a battle against Aethelstan’s Angles at East Lothian. Oengus was badly outnumbered and feared defeat until he saw an X-shaped cloud in the sky and interpreted the phenomenon as divine intervention, praying to Andrew and promising to name a day in his honour if his army won the ensuing battle, which they did. Oengus’s ancient pledge was finally made official in 1320 when Scotland announced its independence from England with the Declaration of Arbroath. Superstition surrounding Andrew persists to this day and the Saltire is said to prevent witches flying down chimneys when marked next to a fireplace. Although I now live in Perthshire, I lived for many years in St Andrews.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.