Rusacks St Andrews

About Rusacks St Andrews

Rusacks has stood above the eighteenth fairway of the Old Course since 1887 and is one of the defining buildings on the St Andrews skyline. A thorough restoration under the Marine & Lawn group added a contemporary wing without disturbing the original sandstone frontage, and the result is a hotel that feels properly historic while behaving like a new one.

The interiors lean into golf history without becoming a museum, with dark panelling, tartan, archive photography and a good deal of memorabilia. Front-facing rooms look straight down the closing hole and across the West Sands, and the best of them are among the most sought-after in Scottish golf; the rear and courtyard rooms are quieter and considerably cheaper.

Food and drink are unusually strong for a hotel of this size. 18 is the rooftop restaurant, with a terrace that takes in the whole sweep of the links and the bay, while Rao's brings the long-established New York Italian kitchen to Scotland in a clubby ground-floor room. The Bridge handles all-day drinking and lighter meals, and Room 116 is a small whisky bar. Everything in the old town is within a ten-minute walk.