Its been almost a month since my last post, a lot longer than I hoped to be absent. Without giving too many excuses, besides the obvious difficulties involved in moving my family to a new country, I also was without a decent internet connection for a couple of weeks. Also, I have had a number of all-day training sessions since I arrived, in which I’m supposed to be learning how to be a good PhD student.
That aside, I am very happy to be here in St Andrews and the whole family is just loving it. The trip here went surprisingly smoothly and we have settled in nicely. We left Utah and after about one whole day of travelling, we arrived at London Heathrow Airport. I have family here in England and we were blessed that my uncle was able to send someone to London to pick us up. We were taken up to the Blackpool area, where much of my family lives and we had the wonderful opportunity to visit with them before being driven up to St Andrews the next morning.
Upon arriving in Scotland, and St Andrews specifically, we immediately fell in love with the place. The countryside is so green and beautiful and St Andrews is in a really ideal location — set on the banks of the North Sea and surrounded on the other sides by softly rolling hills.
Whether this brief description inspires you to want to know more about St Andrews or not, I’m going to share a few more details. St Andrews is full of history, which makes it all the more endearing to me. I note a few of the major points of its history:
- They say that the first nomadic wanderers from Northern Europe arrived in this area during the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age).
- There was a sizable Gaelic-speaking town here in the eighth century AD called “Cennrigmonaid”
- The town became a religious center, seat of the Bishop of Alba in 906 AD
The Old West Port to the city (since reconstructed) -- we live very near here
- The establishment of the present town began around 1140 by Bishop Robert — named for St Andrew the apostle (Peter’s brother, the first apostle to be called)
– some relics of St Andrew were said to have been brought to this place and are now housed in St Salvatore’s Chapel here in town.
–The flag of Scotland bears the saltire, the diagonal cross of St Andrew
- Soon afterwards, a castle was built to house the powerful bishops who made St Andrews their home
- In 1140, St Rule’s Church was built to house the relics of St Andrew, and some time later the Cathedral of St Andrew was finished, the largest building in Scotland at the time
- The University of St Andrews is the oldest in Scotland, having been officially established in 1413 (they will soon celebrate their 600th anniversary). The university is the third oldest in the English-speaking world, after Oxford and Cambridge. Divinity/Theology has been taught at the university since the very beginning.
- Last but not least, St Andrews is known around the world as “the home of golf.” There are records as far back as 1552 stating that golf was played here at what is now known as the Old Course.
Don’t worry — the history of St Andrews is not the new theme of this blog. I just love history and its not every day that you get to live in a town that has nearly a thousand years of interesting stories to tell. I love to walk through the town and just touch some of the old buildings, letting their “ancientness” rub off on me. These old streets witnessed the first preachers and martyrs of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, the fiery sermons of John Knox and the bloody struggles of religious contention. It is an honor for me to study here where people have lived and died for their belief in Christ for centuries.
Martyrs Memorial
Now that I’m here and quite settled in, I plan to start posting regularly again. I hope to post a series of musings on the Psalms, which will be a major focus of my studies here at St Andrews.
8 Comments
Cool post! Sounds like a great place. Thanks for the description. I’ve been to England twice, and both times visited Blackpool. It is home to one of the biggest ballroom dance competitions in the world every year, so the BYU team makes a trip there every 3 years to compete. I went in 2004 and 2007. They’re coming again in the summer of 2010. Lovely countryside up there.
Thanks for the comments, Bryce. I don’t suppose that you’ll be with the BYU group when they come this next summer? If so, we may have to make our way down there to see you! Take care, David
I’m jealous!
Unfortunately no. My younger brother will be there though; he is on the team now.
My good friend Dr. Kathy Larsen asked me to explain the story behind the monument depicted in the last picture I posted, the Martyr’s Memorial. This is the answer I gave her:
The Martyr’s Memorial was set up in memory of the many martyrs that were killed around the time of the Scottish Reformation. Patrick Hamilton, who studied with some of the earliest Lutherans, and George Wishart, influenced by John Calvin, were some of the early preachers who brought Protestantism to Scotland. They, and many others, were burned at the stake for what they preached. There were some really violent struggles over religion in the succeeding century or so.
welcome to the UK! St Andrews is a marvellous city and university. Hope you continue to provide such interesting posts-and get to see alot of both Scotland and England.
Thanks, Aaron! Are you currently in the UK?
I am anxious to see more of both Scotland and England. I’ve actually lived in the UK before — south of England — but never got to see much of the north. I’m definitely enjoying it!
Glad all going well David. Yes Im British-I live in the north of England. Hopefully you will get alot of travelling done.Even though Im biased-it is a fascinating country. I discovered your blog a few months ago-Im interested in anything to do with the Temple and deepening our understanding of it-so keep up the posts! Also thanks for the photos you recently posted of Salt Lake-they were excellent. All best wishes for you in your studies and time here.