I returned to the Fife Coastal Path heading away from St Andrews from East Sands.  There’s an older path which forks away from the main coastal trail which leads down to a lovely viewpoint with a bench looking back over the bay towards St Andrews.  But this location had much more to offer than a pretty view over the bay…

From the bench a nice rock formation was visible down on the shore.  A steep path led down to the formation and the beach at either side of it, so I headed down here first as it would be a while before the lights came on for dusk over at St Andrews.  The incoming tide was lapping against rocks at the top of the beach, making a great seascape subject.

I shot the wide view first, then got in a bit closer for a more intimate view of the rocks.  I had to be ready to jump out of the way of any big waves, though!

A larger rock with some smaller supporting rocks peeping through the waves made another nice tidal study.

As the light faded I headed back up the cliff to the viewpoint and made an image of the larger formation from above, as this didn’t really work from below (it may have done further along the beach, but I’d have to save that for another visit due to the incoming tide…).

As dusk fell and the lights of St Andrews started to come on, I set up with the longer lens and got a shot over the bay toward the harbour and cathedral.

Finally, as the blue hour light hit its peak and the floodlighting illuminated St Salvators chapel tower on the skyline I made the final image of the shoot with lights reflecting on the sea across the bay, which rounded off my visit to St Andrews nicely.

You can also see some images from the shoot in my collection on 500px.

Travel Details

I travelled to Leuchars station with East Coast and got the connecting Stagecoach bus to St Andrews.  My accommodation was the delightful 3c Gillespie Terrace on The Scores right on the seafront near the start of the famous Old Course – an ideal location as I was able to do all of my shoots on foot – including sunrise down at the harbour.