St Salvator’s Chapel

St Salvator's Chapel tickets: which one to buy

Saint Salvator's Chapel stands on North Street in Saint Andrews, Scotland, as part of the University of Saint Andrews, the oldest university in Scotland, and it is free to enter when open, usually during the day in term time. The chapel is at the heart of university life, with services, concerts and graduations. Walking tours of Saint Andrews, often led by students, include the chapel along with the cathedral ruins, the castle, the West Sands beach and the Old Course, the home of golf.

Saint Andrews is about an hour and a half from Edinburgh by train and bus. The pavement outside the chapel entrance holds the initials PH set in cobbles, marking the place where the Protestant martyr Patrick Hamilton was burned in 1528; students traditionally avoid stepping on them for fear of failing their exams. Student-led walking tours of the town leave from the university visitor centre.

Visiting St Salvator's Chapel: what to see

The chapel was founded in 1450 by Bishop James Kennedy as the chapel of Saint Salvator's College, one of the colleges of the university, and it was completed in the 1460s in a late Gothic style, with a tall tower and spire rising over North Street. The chapel's interior was altered after the Reformation and restored in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It has a wooden roof, stained glass windows, including modern ones, and memorials to university figures. The tomb of Bishop Kennedy, carved in the fifteenth century, is one of the finest medieval tombs in Scotland. The chapel also holds a pulpit said to have been used by John Knox, the Protestant reformer, and the mace of Saint Salvator's College, made in Paris in 1461.

The tower has a clock and bells, and the chapel's organ is used for regular recitals. The chapel's stained glass includes windows designed by Douglas Strachan and others in the twentieth century. The choir stalls and organ gallery are carved in dark wood. The walls hold memorials to university principals and professors. The tower's clock faces overlook North Street and the quad. The chapel's quad, surrounded by university buildings, is a traditional gathering place. Students in red gowns can be seen walking along the pier after Sunday services. The chapel's windows were restored in recent decades. The bells ring for university events.

St Salvator's Chapel opening hours and the best time to go

The chapel is open during the day, especially during university terms, and it may be closed for events and graduations. Saint Andrews is busy in summer with visitors and golfers, and during the Open Championship when held on the Old Course. The university's graduation ceremonies in June and December bring students in gowns to North Street. The Raisin Weekend in November is a lively student tradition. Winters are cold and windy on the coast. Allow about fifteen minutes for the chapel, and walk to the cathedral ruins at the end of North Street. The Saint Andrews Cathedral ruins and museum, at the end of North Street, include the tower of Saint Rule, which can be climbed.