Join our intrepid Golden Retriever guides, Walter and Arthur, as they head to the Kingdom of Fife and the historic town of St. Andrews, Scotland. There, they will help you explore and discover a wee hidden gem- St. Andrews Museum.
Understandably, Walter and Arthur could not go inside the Museum (although they are allowed in the café), but they had a grand time exploring the surrounding Kinburn Park in the magnificent winter sunshine.
St. Andrews Museum is situated in Kinburn House- a lovely Victorian mansion whose purpose has changed a great deal over the years. Initially it was a private residence, but it also has served as a library and as a telephone exchange during World War Two. It has been the home of the Museum since 1991.
Now, we know that the title of this post is ‘From A-Z’. However, we hope you’ll understand if we don’t go through the whole alphabet of the ‘A-Z’ exhibition at St. Andrews Museum. Afterall, they do a great job of that themselves and our job is to just cover some of the highlights from our visit.
We feel it is only fitting to start off with the letter ‘A’ for ‘Andrew’ as St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. If you would like to know more about St. Andrew, be sure to check out our article on him after this virtual visit. Below is a 16th century carved wooden panel with the town’s coat of arms and a representation of St. Andrew.
‘C’ is for ‘Cathedral’ and ‘Castle’- both of which are a key part of the history of St. Andrews. You can read more about the Cathedral in our post about St. Andrew. For the Castle, check out this article.
‘F’ is for ‘Free Gardeners’. St. Andrews Museum discusses how “Free Gardeners developed into a Friendly Society which helped members if sick or in need”. Notably, on display is the ‘Banner of the Thistle and Rose of the Free Gardeners Society’ from 1823 (pictured below).
‘H’ is for ‘Homes’. The Museum also provides information on the importance of domestic buildings and life in St. Andrews. I found this kitchen cupboard from 1930 particularly fascinating with the ‘cookbook holder’ on the inside of the door on the bottom left a charming feature.
‘K’ is for ‘Kinburn’. As previously mentioned, the house and park are named ‘Kinburn’, and the name was given by the house’s original occupant, Dr. David Buddo. Kinburn comes from the name of a battle in the Crimean War in 1855.
‘P’ is for ‘Pilgrims’ and ‘R’ is for ‘Reliquary’- both of which have had important roles in St. Andrews. We previously wrote about pilgrims in our ‘Pilgrimage to St. Margaret’s Cave’ post. St. Margaret also encouraged pilgrimages to St. Andrews. On display at St. Andrews Museum are various badges that pilgrims would have worn on their hat or clothing as they made their pilgrimage. You can also see a model (made in 2004) of a reliquary- known as the ‘Morbrac’ in Gaelic. The original Morbrac once held some of St. Andrew’s bones. According to the Museum, it is believed that it was destroyed by Protestant Reformers in the middle of the 16th century.
We close with a bit of dark history with the letter ‘X’ as in ‘eXecutions’. Related is one particularly gruesome artefact- an axe used for executing criminals in St. Andrews in the 17th century!
Before you leave St. Andrews Museum, make sure to visit their popular café, Sweetpea at the Museum. They have a variety of lunch options as well as hot beverages and desserts (you can never go wrong with coffee and cake).
In addition to their permanent ‘St Andrews A-Z’ exhibition, the Museum also has temporary exhibitions. Unfortunately, we just missed the opening of their latest exhibition, ‘Unearthed’, where you can “find out how Scotland was formed, which creatures roamed the land and discover the treasures left by people in Fife over thousands of years”. The exhibition is family-friendly and is on display until the 27th of September 2025.
If you visit St. Andrews, we highly recommend that make a stop at this wee gem of a museum. Admission is free, but we always ask that you donate if possible. Head over to their website for the most up to date information on how to plan your visit.
We also encourage you to subscribe to our blog so that you can get our articles as soon as they are published. Our passion is to travel around Scotland and share our adventures with all of you. We have some fantastic places that we will be writing about in the coming months- including more places in St. Andrews. You can also follow along with Walter’s and Arthur’s explorations on YouTube, Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and Tiktok. Last, but not least, if you happen to head south to Scotland's capital, why not book one of our historic Edinburgh walking tours? Sami (our human tour guide) and Walter would love to show you around!
Until next time- Explore & Discover!
