Ten acres of gardens, a turreted 1924 house and one of Scotland's first country-house hotels, five minutes from the Old Course and a world away from it. The St Andrews stay for people who want the town on the doorstep but not under the window.
There is another side to staying in St Andrews. Away from the bustle around Market Street and the unmistakable pull of the Old Course, Rufflets sits among ten acres of gardens, woodland and open lawns on the western edge of town. It is close enough for a morning on the links, lunch in St Andrews or an afternoon in the cathedral ruins, but sufficiently removed that when you come back up the drive in the evening, the town has gone quiet behind you and there is nothing outside the window but trees.
The house was built in 1924 as a private home for Anne Brydon Gilroy, whose initials are still cut into the keystone above the garden door. In 1952 it became one of Scotland's first country-house hotels, and it has been one ever since. That history matters, but Rufflets is best understood through its setting: gardens outside every window, a fire in the bar, and the sense that staying here is deliberately slower than staying in the centre of town.
Why go
For the gardens, first and always. Ten acres of formal borders, lawns, woodland paths and an organic kitchen garden, laid out with the house a century ago and now in the middle of a centenary restoration. Most hotels have grounds; Rufflets has a garden, in the sense that someone is out there every morning with secateurs, and what they cut ends up on the table. An hour with nowhere particular to be, which is the thing a weekend in St Andrews rarely allows, is the best thing the place offers.
Then for the character. This is not a resort. Twenty-four bedrooms, no two alike, are spread through the main house, the gatehouse, the lodges and the cottages by the burn, and no corridor looks like a hotel corridor. And for the position: five minutes by car to the first tee, the beaches and the three old streets, which is near enough to do everything and far enough to sleep.
The room
Ask what you want and they will find it. The turret rooms in the main house are the romantic choice, with the curved walls and the view down over the formal garden; the larger suites, the Gilroy among them, give you a sitting room and a bath to lie down in. The Woodland Suites, newer and set apart in the trees with private decks, are the ones for a long weekend when you do not want to see another guest until dinner. The lodges take dogs, with a welcome for them as well as for you. And for a group — a four-ball, two families, a wedding party — Kinness House sleeps eight, with its own kitchen, a balcony and somewhere dry to keep the clubs.
Throughout, the style is country house rather than boutique: patterned fabrics, proper armchairs, a decanter on the side. Some rooms are showing their years more than others; if the room matters to you as much as the garden, ask for one of the recently refurbished ones when you book.
The table
The kitchen garden sets the menu. The Rufflets Brasserie cooks modern Scottish with what the gardener brought in that morning — the herbs, salads, soft fruit and vegetables come from thirty yards away, the beef and fish from Fife and the East Neuk — and holds two AA rosettes for it. On a warm evening, tables go out onto the terrace above the lawn. Next door, Bar 1924 is the fireside counterpoint: deep chairs, a hundred and forty malts and gins, and a barman who has the time to talk. Afternoon tea is served daily and Sunday lunch is a St Andrews institution; both are open to non-residents and both should be booked.
"The town on the doorstep, but not under the window."
The detail people remember
The walk before breakfast. Down through the formal garden, along the burn, up through the woodland and back to the terrace, with the kitchen garden gate open and someone already at work in it. It takes twenty minutes, nobody else is up, and it is the reason people who have stayed once stay again.
Who it is for
Couples who want a quieter St Andrews. Golfers who do not need to sleep beside the Old Course and would rather have a garden and a fire. Families, who get room to run; dog owners, who get the lodges; wedding parties, who get the whole house. And anyone who has stayed in the middle of town before and wants the other side of it.
It is not for the visitor who wants to walk out of the door and be on Market Street, or on the first tee: for that, stay on the Scores or at the Old Course Hotel. You will use a taxi or the car here, twice a day, and should build that in.
A little history
Before the house existed, the land was known as the Ruch Flets, old Scots for rough, flat ground, and records trace the name to 1642, when it belonged to the Priory of St Andrews. The house came in 1924, a private home in the Scots baronial manner with its turret and crow-stepped gables. In 1952 George and Margaret Cook and Anna and James Meldrum bought the seven-bedroom house and turned it into a hotel, at a time when the idea of a country-house hotel was still new in Scotland. It has stayed in independent hands since, which is rarer than it sounds.
What to do nearby
The Old Course and the Links, five minutes by car; walk the Old Course on a Sunday. Read: St Andrews Links, more than the home of golf.
The West Sands, five minutes; two miles of beach for the dog or the children.
St Andrews Cathedral and St Rule's Tower, ten minutes. Read: St Andrews Cathedral, where the story began.
Dinner in town if you are not eating in: Forgan's on Market Street. Read: Forgan's, St Andrews.
The whole of it, in order: Read: A perfect weekend in St Andrews.
Know before you go
Address: Strathkinness Low Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TX — a mile and a half west of the centre.
From the Old Course: Five minutes by car or taxi; about 30 minutes on foot along the Lade Braes path if you want the walk. Leuchars station ten minutes by car.
Hours / season: Open all year. Brasserie dinner nightly; afternoon tea daily; Sunday lunch from midday. Bar 1924 open to non-residents.
Price: Rooms from around £160 a night in winter and from around £250 in summer, breakfast included; Woodland Suites and the Gilroy Suite more. Kinness House by the week or weekend.
How to book: Direct with the hotel; ask for a turret room or a Woodland Suite by name.
Good to know: Free parking. Dogs welcome in the lodges. Family rooms available. Weddings most summer weekends — ask when booking if you want a quiet Saturday. AA four star, two rosettes.
Best time: June for the roses and the long evenings on the terrace; October for the fire in Bar 1924 and the garden in colour.
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The Kithmore St Andrews | Boutique Hotel Guide