November 30 is St. Andrew's Day in Scotland. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and so an entire day is devoted to celebrating the feast day of St. Andrew! Since our town is named for him, the day is especially festive.
We started out the day with lunch downtown before heading out to see some sights around town. An ice sculpture was carved in front of Holy Trinity Church so we stopped and watch the men at work.
What would St. Andrew's Day be without a sighting of the local town cat, Hamish McHamish!
Another highlight of the day is that it is the only day out of the year where nonmembers can enter the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at the Old Course. The Club is only open to members (who are all men like at Augusta) but on this day they open wide the doors and let everyone come in and see the clubhouse and some lovely pieces of golf history.
It began as an organization in 1754 and currently acts as the highest level of governance in international golf. The large main room (officially called "The Big Room") is filled with paintings, most notably of Queen Elizabeth II, the patron of the Royal and Ancient.
The room also has a spectacular view of the golf course. The boys loved enjoying the view from the binoculars and watching the golfers and the people posing for pictures on the Swilcan Bridge.
In the "North Room" there are lots of items on display, including these golf clubs from the 1800s. Some of the clubs on display belonged to Tom Morris Jr., who lived and was buried in St Andrews.
When you walk in, the first thing you see is this display case with the Clarit Jug (on the right), the "Challenge Belt" (in the middle) which was what preceded the jug as the prize for the Open champion (until Tom Morris Jr won three times in a row and by rule claimed it permanently), and the Amateur Championship trophy.
I tried to get the boys to pose in the doorway but they chose the canon to the left :)
After leaving the club (and even being asked if we wanted to join;), we headed over to the British Golf Museum, which is also free to the public on St. Andrew's Day. We hurried through the exhibit of golf artifacts and made it to the highlight: a putting green. Joseph deemed it his favorite part of the day!
We caught a glorious sunset on the North Sea as we were heading back into town (around 3:45pm:) Moments like these make it hard to believe we really live here!
We stopped back by the ice sculpture to see the boat (the HMS Hamish) with a depiction of Hamish McHamish at the head.
We had hoped to stay for the parade and the switching on of the lights but we were cold and tired after a long day and the boys weren't ready to wait another hour or so for the show to start. They were very happy to go on a ride before calling it a night.
To finish off our Scottish day, we made our first attempt at authentic British cuisine: bangers and mash. They were delicious and will definitely become a part of our dinner rotation.
What would St. Andrew's Day be without a sighting of the local town cat, Hamish McHamish!
Another highlight of the day is that it is the only day out of the year where nonmembers can enter the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at the Old Course. The Club is only open to members (who are all men like at Augusta) but on this day they open wide the doors and let everyone come in and see the clubhouse and some lovely pieces of golf history.
It began as an organization in 1754 and currently acts as the highest level of governance in international golf. The large main room (officially called "The Big Room") is filled with paintings, most notably of Queen Elizabeth II, the patron of the Royal and Ancient.
The room also has a spectacular view of the golf course. The boys loved enjoying the view from the binoculars and watching the golfers and the people posing for pictures on the Swilcan Bridge.
In the "North Room" there are lots of items on display, including these golf clubs from the 1800s. Some of the clubs on display belonged to Tom Morris Jr., who lived and was buried in St Andrews.
When you walk in, the first thing you see is this display case with the Clarit Jug (on the right), the "Challenge Belt" (in the middle) which was what preceded the jug as the prize for the Open champion (until Tom Morris Jr won three times in a row and by rule claimed it permanently), and the Amateur Championship trophy.
Joseph took a picture of us
1 comment:
So cool! I love the name of that place..."Royal and Ancient"--I love the feeling I get when I go through such old places! And I cannot believe the sun sets before 4pm!
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