Filming locations in St Andrews

Visiting St Andrews: a set-jetting guide. The Fife coastal town is famous the world over for golf and gowns, but for film lovers it is the home of one unforgettable image: the slow-motion run along the beach in Chariots of Fire. Hugh Hudson's Oscar-winning 1981 drama opens with its athletes pounding the sand to Vangelis's synth theme, and that long flat strand is St Andrews' own West Sands.

Standing on the beach, you are looking at one of the most quoted scenes in British cinema. The West Sands stretch for nearly two miles beside the dunes and the famous golf links, wide and bracing in any weather, and it is the same horizon the runners chase in the titles. Few film locations are this easy to inhabit: you can simply walk out and run it yourself, which plenty of visitors do.

The beach is free and open at all times, with parking at the Old Course end, where the clubhouse of the world's most storied golf course stands right at the sand's edge. That makes the location a natural pairing with a wander into the old town just behind, where the ruined cathedral, the university's ancient quads and the harbour are all within an easy stroll.

St Andrews sits about an hour and a half from Edinburgh, which makes it a comfortable day out or an overnight by the sea. Wrap up warmly, whatever the season, because the North Sea wind is part of the experience, and let the long empty beach do the rest. Early or late in the day, with the light low across the sand, is when the Chariots of Fire magic is strongest.