After a week at Carr’s Hill CL it is time for us to pack up and move on. We have enjoyed our stay in this area and will definitely be returning at a future date to spend more time in the Ochil Hills. Our next stop is just outside of St Andrews, which is a pleasant drive up the A91.
It does not take us long to get set up at Knockhill CL on the outskirts of Strathkinness a small village a few miles from St Andrews. It is cracking spot, a small CL seemingly in the owner’s garden; we are given a warm welcome. Admiring the views we see the tide is out so quickly head off to let the boys have a run around on the beach.
We have not previously visited this area and our first impressions driving through St Andrews are very positive. Having read some of the tourist blurb we are expecting an interesting old town, but in the past we have occasionally been disappointed when we have visited a place promising much and then failing to deliver. We immediately make plans to have a saunter about here during our stay.
We park on the north side of the town and walk up to use the famous walkway across the Old Course of St Andrews. If you have ever watched televised golf from here you will know it crosses the eighteen and first fairway. We wait whilst a chap plays his shot into the eighteenth. His practice swing is good, but he duffs his shot hitting it a bit heavy, whilst the ball is in the air he gives a cry in an American accent of “be the right club”. It was probably the right club if he had hit it properly, but instead it has ended up twenty yards short of the green.
We are soon on the West Sands. Wow what a beach this is! When the Open Golf Tournament has been televised from here I have seen shots of people walking their dogs on this beach, but that does not prepare you for such a wide expanse of sand.
What’s more there is hardly anybody here!
If there is one place that the dogs like to be, it is on the beach. Dexter is now eight and when we park up to start any walk he waits before jumping out of the car. If he sees hills he has to be encouraged out to join us, a sniff of sea air and he is off like a greyhound out of the traps.
One of Crosby’s greatest pleasures is standing in the sea with the waves lapping around him.
This is definitely the sort of place that the boys could visit everyday.
We walk a couple of miles along the beach and then turn and walk back. All the way the boys are chasing tennis balls. They will sleep well tonight.
We return around by the first tee and eighteenth green of the Old Course. Unusually I have carried my clubs on this tour and when we set off I fully intended to try and play a round at what is recognised as the home of golf. However, I am put off by the over excitement of foreign visitors to be on this course. Four early-teens Americans are discussing the merits of their caddies who have just lugged their bags around for the afternoon. Why they were unable to carry their own bags at their age I cannot tell. Being on my own I would need to join a group to play and I would hate to be stuck in a four ball with a couple of these precocious adolescents. So the clubs will stay tucked away, or will come out for some quiet little course where I can wander around with a local and enjoy their company.
30th May 2016
[To follow this walk you will need Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 371– St Andrews & East Fife]
© Two Dogs and an Awning (2016)