Pilgrim Ways

Earlier on their travels they had been to Scotland‟s most noted ancient pilgrim site, the ruined cathedral and monastery of St.Andrews. While undertaking a Vistiting Fellowship at St.Andrews University in 1997 I was fortunate enough to be shown around by Professor John Haldane, the university‟s professor of Moral Philosophy. Johnson and Boswell were given their tour by one of the university‟s eighteenth-century academics, Dr.Watson, who had bought what was left of St.Leonard‟s‟ College and had turned the remains into his house. It was where they stayed after supper at the Glass. Watson showed his visitors what had once been the metropolitan See of Scotland, and had been at the epicentre of the Scottish Reformation. In succession, the monastery had been founded in the eleventh century, the cathedral in the twelfth, the castle in the thirteenth and the university in the fourteenth century. St.Andrew, an apostle of Christ, is Scotland‟s patron saint and the Fife town and cathedral which bear his name have played a pivotal part in Scotland‟s history. The cross of the crucified Andrew forms the national flag of Scotland, the Saltfire. The archbishopric was created on August 13th 1472 by Pope Sixtus IV. Peace And Independence In 1320, just over a century earlier, the earls and barons of Scotland had written their famous letter to the Pope asking him to urge the kings of England to let them live in peace and independence: “For as long as one hundred of us remain alive we will never allow ourselves to fall under the domination of the English. We do not fight for glory or wealth or honours, but for liberty, which no honest man will give up while he has life.” The declaration went on to make the connection between the Scots and St.Andrew: “Their true nobility and merits have been made plain, if not by other considerations, then by the fact that King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, after his passion and resurrection, brought them, the first of all, to his holy faith, though they lived in the furthest parts of the world, and He chose that they be so persuaded to faith by none other than the brother of the blessed Peter, the gentle Andrew, first-called of the apostles, though in rank the second or the third, who he wished always to be over us as our patron.” Vast numbers of pilgrims came here to the only site outside continental Europe to boast the corporeal relics of an Apostle.

Pilgrim Routes To St.Andrews There were several pilgrim routes to St.Andrews, although the main one was the east coast route, linking with the pilgrim trails to and from the Shrine of St.Cuthbert at Durham (see Chapter Two, The Celts). From East Lothian the pilgrim route crossed from North Berwick to Ardross (northeast of modern Elie), Fife via the passagium comitis (the earl‟s ferry), and pilgrim houses existed at North Berwick and Ardross. The ferry and hostels were administered by Cistercian nuns of the convent and hospital of North Berwick. From the west pilgrims crossed the Forth by the passagium reginae (the Queens Ferry) founded by St.Margaret. There were hostels on both sides. Travelling along the King‟s Road they passed through Cupar and Guardbridge. A gathering place existed by a bridge at the River Eden and from here they journeyed on to St.Andrews, with the protection of a guard, in a group through the outlaw territory of Kincaple and Stathtyrum marshlands. From the northeast pilgrims crossed the Tay by the Ferry of the Loaf from Broughty Ferry to Ferry-Port-onCraig; or they took the ferries at Woodhaven or Balmerino, run by the monks of Arbroath Abbey and Balmerino Abbey. The focus of the pilgrimage were the relics of St.Andrew, cared for by the “dewar”, or keeper of the reliquary. On the feast of St.Andrew, November 30th, these would be carried down South Street and up North Street, preceded by masters and