St Andrews Cathedral - Fife, Scotland
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creg-ny-baa
N 56° 20.381 W 002° 47.209
30V E 513178 N 6243906
St Andrews Cathedral on the east coast of Scotland, now in a ruinous state, but once the largest cathedral in Scotland.
Waymark Code: WM15Y5Z
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/21/2022
Views: 0
St Rule, a monk from Patras in Greece, heard from an angel that the Emperor Constantine was planning on sending the relics of of St Andrew to Constantinople, facing him to flee by sea, taking with him three fingers of the right hand, a knee cap and tooth. St Rule ended up being washed up on the east coast of Scotland at what was then known as Kilrymont, later to be St.Andrews.
A church was built for St Rule on the coastline at the eastern end of the town from 1123-59, and in 1158 work began alongside the church on the cathedral, which at 390 feet long would make it the largest in Scotland.
With the western end being blown down in a storm, the cathedral was largely rebuilt from 1272-79 and was eventually consecrated on July 5th 1318. It featured a central tower and six turrets.
After a fire in 1378, it was restored in 1440, but in June 1559, during the reformation, Protestants incited by the preachings of John Knox ransacked the interior, and by 1561 the cathedral went into decline.
The central tower eventually fell, taking the north wall with it and the building essentially became a quarry for the town with much going into building material. It was not until 1826 that the remainder was eventually preserved.
Today all that remains on the site are the tower of St Rules Church, minus its spire. Of the cathedral is the facade at the eastern end, with the wall of the nave and one of the turrets at the western end. All of the ground was given over to be the town's graveyard.