The St Andrews Castle was fortified around 1100 and a hundred years later it became the home of the bishops and archbishops of St Andrews. The Castle saw little in the way of encroachment from foreign lands but it was front and center during the Reformation in the mid-1500s. Cardinal Beaton, who lived at the Castle, burned a Protestant preacher at the stake in front of the castle.  It wasn’t long thereafter that the Protestants took the Castle by building a mine underneath the Castle walls in order to compromise its structural viability. Once they gained entry, they assassinated Cardinal Beaton in his residence. It is believed that King Henry the VIII of England was pleased to be rid of the Cardinal because Beaton stood in the way of the King’s initiatives in Scotland. A year later, a French fleet reduced the Castle to ruins but its stones can be seen today as they were used to build residences in the town of St Andrews. These ruins are what remains of St Andrews Castle.

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