Its dreaming spires and quirky traditions dating back 600 years make it the perfect backdrop for romance, with one in ten of its students meeting their future spouse in the medieval quads.
Of course, the most famous marriage to emerge from the world-renowned University of St Andrews was that of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
It was 14 years ago this weekend that Wills and Kate officially announced their engagement and now the ancient institution is playing matchmaker to another budding royal love story.
Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, is following the academic path of her cousin William, who met Catherine while they were both reading history of art at St Andrews – although he later switched to geography.
Lady Louise, who recently turned 21, is the King’s youngest niece and 16th in line to the throne. She is in her third year of an English Literature degree and is dating 20-year-old fellow student Felix da Silva-Clamp, who was born in London but brought up in, Melbourne, Australia.
She may have blue blood, but Lady Louise – her parents Edward and Sophie eschewed the title of Princess – is known to be down-to-earth, polite, and serious about her studies. Like her older cousin, she is considered just another student in the close-knit community at St Andrews.
Photographs from a fundraiser for the university drama society showed her dancing and having fun with friends and taking selfies snuggling up with Felix, who is the son of a solicitor father and a mother who works for the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Lady Louise with boyfriend Felix da Silva Clamp at an event at St Andrews University
If their university romance lasts and they tie the knot – as so many do at St Andrews – they will follow in the footsteps of William and Kate. St Andrews, Britain’s third oldest university at more than 600 years old, has a long tradition of its alumni getting hitched to each other.
The university chaplain, Rev Dr Donald MacEwan, has conducted many marriages between St Andrews graduates at the magnificent St Salvator’s Chapel.
‘Couples tell me the university is a lovely place to fall in love,’ he said. ‘St Andrews is such a small place that you keep bumping into each other.
‘Relationships seem to last long after people graduate and move away. And it is so beautiful, with long walks on the beach and other romantic settings, that it’s no wonder I’ve seen so many marriages in my 13 years as chaplain.’
Mo Rankin, 42, a public relations officer, has been married to Rebecca Bond, 41, a potter, for the past ten years. The couple met at St Andrews in 2005, when they appeared together in a drama society play; Mo was reading International Relations and Rebecca English Literature.
Mo, who lives with Rebecca in East Yorkshire with their two children, said: ‘We’re not the only ones who got married out of our circle of friends – four or five couples have ended up together.
‘St Andrews is a romantic place with lots of historic places, restaurants and bars, beautiful old buildings and amazing natural surroundings.
‘There’s a lovely beach for long walks – it’s atmospheric when the fog rolls in from the sea.
‘You get to know everybody, and we were like one big family. You end up studying and living in the same place and sharing experiences and interests.’
Mo believes the relationship between William and Kate has put St Andrews on the map.
‘When I was there, it was a bit of a backwater. We saw William about the place and in the pub but thought nothing of it. There’s no doubt the royal presence was a draw and now there’s a lot more money about and it’s more difficult to get into St Andrews. However, I had a fantastic education and can’t fault the university.’
Kate and William on their graduation day at St Andrews University in 2005
Lady Louise has a love of horse carriage driving, hobby she shared with her grandfather Philip
St Andrews students enjoy Raisin Weekend
Tab Bainum, 40, an IT professional from North Carolina, met his Swedish wife, Annika Östman, 40, who works in communications, at St Andrews where he was studying English and Annika International Relations.
They have two children and married in 2012 after getting together in 2006 through the university drama society. The couple now live in Stockholm.
Tab, who returned to Scotland to get married on the banks of Loch Ness, said: ‘The whole town was talking about Annika after she appeared in a revealing costume in a musical.
‘I was in the audience and thought, “I want to meet this girl.” I eventually wore her down and she agreed to go out with me.
‘It’s inevitable students fall for each other in a town with only three streets in the centre.
‘You run into people all the time and most of the students ended the night at the union as it was open later than the local pubs.’
There’s no doubt that love is in the air of St Andrews, and it certainly seems to have blossomed for Lady Louise and Felix, whose bond has been growing stronger over the past two years.
Felix travelled down to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk to see Louise compete in a horse driving competition in summer, where she won a silver medal, and he appeared to get on well with Lady Louise’s parents, smiling as he chatted with the Duchess of Edinburgh.
The couple seem well-suited in their lack of grandeur. Felix works in an ice cream parlour in St Andrews at term-time, and in 2022 Lady Louise had a summer job serving at the tills and tending plants for £6.63 an hour at a Surrey garden centre before beginning her degree course.
A friend of Lady Louise told The Telegraph: ‘She’s really grounded, and you wouldn’t know she’s a member of the Royal
Family. She works a student job during the week, in the canteen, and takes part in a lot of student theatre productions – she was in the chorus for a play called Dragon Fever. She was really good.’
The student newspaper, The Saint, reviewed the play, praising Lady Louise’s ‘compelling performance’ in her role as a witch.
Felix was also in the cast, playing ‘an impressionable and naïve, young squire,’ a role that won him the Best Scene Stealer award.
As well as their shared love of the stage, the couple may end up spending time together in Australia, where Felix went to school and where his mother, who works for the WHO’s mental health gap action programme, lives.
As part of Lady Louise’s four-year English Literature degree, undergraduates can study a semester abroad, and it has been reported that she may spend her final year at Macquarie University in Sydney so she can travel with Felix.
Despite being cousins with Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Prince William and Prince Harry, Louise doesn’t use an HRH title as her father, Prince Edward, wanted to shield her from the pressures of life in the public eye.
When she was young, Louise apparently had no idea her beloved grandmother was the Queen.
In an interview, her mother, Sophie, said that as a child Louise had come home one day saying, ‘Mummy, people keep on telling me that grandma is the Queen.’
Louise has previously expressed an interest in pursuing a career in the military; if she does, she will be the first female royal since Queen Elizabeth II to do so.
Lady Louise is said to have been close to both her grandparents.
To Prince Philip, she brought a sense of personal pride as the first royal to officially carry the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Philip’s surname, which his children were not allowed to carry, was Mountbatten.
Lady Louise also shared a love of horse carriage driving with the late Duke of Edinburgh, who was instrumental in helping to establish the activity as a sport in Britain and represented Britain at several world and European championships.
Sophie said: ‘My father-in-law was really encouraging of Lady Louise. When she not only said “please can I have a go” but showed a flair for it (carriage driving), he was just brilliant with her.’
Lady Louise has the rest of the academic year to enjoy the peace and quiet of St Andrews.
There are no nightclubs in the town and students socialise through dinner parties, social clubs, and society balls, such as the Welly Ball and the May Ball.
University traditions help students from more than 140 countries find friends and make connections – academic families are made up of older students who ‘adopt’ first year students as ‘children’ and mentor them.
At Raisin Weekend, the ‘children’ are entertained by their ‘parents’ and encouraged to play pranks, wear fancy dress, and end up in an enormous shaving foam fight.
The May Dip sees students plunging into the freezing North Sea at dawn on the first of May to bring them good luck in their exams. But woe betide any student foolish enough to step on a set of initials set into the cobbles outside Sallies Quad.
It is said they will fall under the curse of Patrick Hamilton, a 16th century martyr burnt at the stake, and fail their degree.
Students make up around 7,500 of the 22,000-strong population of the picturesque town which is known as the Home of Golf. They are particularly visible on the pier walk ever Sunday after chapel service when they wear their distinctive red academic gowns down to the end of the pier and back.
Places at St Andrews, which is ranked first in the UK in the 2024 Times Good University Guide, are highly sought after.
But the Scottish Government’s limit on tuition fees for home-grown students means it’s rare to hear a local accent among those from English and international backgrounds, so much so that the dearth of Scottish students was joked about in an episode of the Netflix series The Crown about William and Kate’s student days.
The cachet of another royal romance will no doubt add to the allure of this prestigious university as students from all over the world seek to rub shoulders with royalty – or at the very least find their own true love.
