Author: admin


  • Blog Long distance Walking.

    I was once asked in an Interview why I like walking for day after day through mountains. On another occasion I was speaking to a colleague working at a bar and they asked me why I walked up mountains when I could just look at them. While Mallory’s ” because its there” is my usual…

  • Empire, Commerce, and Men of System Interview: Richard Whatmore

    Economic crisis, global unrest, and a political system at its knees. These may resemble the headlines of newspapers today, but in University of St Andrews’ History Professor Richard Whatmore’s new book, The End of Enlightenment, one can see how the thinkers of the 18th century found themselves facing the same challenges as us today. The…

  • Haute Route Pyrenees

    Haute Route Pyrenees

    Images from the Haute Route Pyrénées

  • Welcome to my Work

    Welcome to my Work

    Here you will find my work on St Andrews, Scotland and the World

  • Rector’s Reckoning

    Rector’s Reckoning

    The Saint can reveal that University Rector Leyla Hussein OBE has only visited St Andrews for a week since her election victory in 2020. The campaigner and activist has also not been present at any University Court meetings since her formal installation in April 2022. This has led her former Rector’s Assessor, Stella Maris, to…

  • Staff Accuse Principal of “hiding” and “abrogating her responsibility” in Strike Response

    Striking staff have accused the Principal Dame Sally Mapstone of “hiding” and “abrogating her responsibility” in her response to the dispute which has led to the latest strikes in St Andrews. The Saint spoke to those on the picket lines Thursday 9 February in the second week of the 18 days of UCU strike action…

  • Local Democracy, Lord of the Rings, and Picts Interview with Alex Woolf

    This week, The Saint had the honour of speaking to one of the most beloved members of the Medieval History faculty as he spoke to us about his journey to St Andrews, Lord of the Rings, and the future of HS2. Dr Alex Woolf’s journey to St Andrews wasn’t the plod through postgraduate degrees we…

  • Prof Gregory Lee of the Department of Chinese Studies Founds Cantonese Studies Archive

    The University of St Andrews’ Department of Chinese Studies is offering students a unique program for the study of Cantonese Culture. The Department for Chinese Studies is also founding a Cantonese Studies archive to preserve Cantonese cultures for future generations and historians in the wake of recent crackdowns by the Chinese Communist Party. Prof Gregory…

  • Franco and Spain Gone but not Forgotten

    Spain has come a long way since the end of Franco’s dictatorship in 1975 and the finaltransition to democracy in 1982. However, unlike other nations in Europe with pasts oftotalitarian regimes, large parts of Spanish society have consciously tried to forget it. Tounderstand this one must look to Spanish society’s divisions around the Civil war…

  • University Diversity Module Sparks Controversy

    The University of St Andrews is facing severe criticism over the University’s diversity training. The Times, Daily Mail, and The Herald all covered the story with a Times editorial lambasting the University for following “absurd wokeist orthodoxy”. The controversy began on 1 October with a Times news article which focused upon a question in the…