Location

Abbotsford Place is a private lane set back from Albany Place / North Street on the main route into St Andrews. It is a quiet, almost hidden, setting in one of the most popular locations in St Andrews. Despite this the house has an open outlook over the shared green in front to the Howard Place gardens beyond.

The house has two areas of garden to the front and a double garden off Greyfriars Garden to the rear. Golf Place, which is the street which leads to the 18th Green of the Old Course, the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse and the West Sands beach, is only 250 yards away.

St Andrews is renowned worldwide as the 'Home of Golf'. There are now seven golf courses under the management of the St Andrews Links Trust, including the world-famous Old Course which played host to the 150th Open Championship in 2022. There are many other golf courses nearby, including The Duke's Course, two courses at Fairmont St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Dumbarnie.

St Andrews is well known for its university which is one of the oldest in Britain, founded in 1413. The historic town has an excellent range of independent stores, hotels, restaurants and cultural facilities which include a cinema and the Byre Theatre.   

Leuchars railway station is on the main Aberdeen to London line and provides a link to Edinburgh and a sleeper service to London. Dundee Airport offers flights to London Heathrow, and Edinburgh Airport is only 50 miles away.

Description

Southern Lodge was built in 1870 for Tom Roger, a local architect, and has a plaque TR1870 on the north gable. It was bought by the local medical practice in 1871 and then became the St Andrews Cottage Hospital until 1902 when the hospital moved to a larger site.

Southern Lodge returned to private ownership as a three storey family home in 1902 and was used as such until 1947 when an application was made to build a stair on the north gable to enable the property to be used as two flats. The lower flat comprised the ground floor using the front door and the upper flat the top two floors using the new north entrance.

The present owners bought the Upper Flat in 1994 and the Lower Flat in 1998. They reconnected the two properties to create a wonderful, six bedroom family home. The second kitchen on the first floor was retained as a utility room which means that there is great flexibility in how the property can be used. There are also two gas-fired boilers.

Special features include a large modern kitchen on the ground floor which opens into a superb conservatory which was built in 2019. This is complemented by a well-proportioned dining room. On the first floor is a lovely drawing room with a bay window taking full benefit of the open outlook. There is also a library and a study with the upper porch giving access to the back door and external stairs.

There are two bedrooms with shower rooms on the ground floor, one of which is currently used as a snug off the kitchen. The principal bedroom with its own bathroom is on the first floor. There are three family bedrooms and a bathroom on the top floor.

Gardens and Parking

In front of the house is a west facing front garden contained by a low stone wall with a gate. This is down to lawns with a summer house in the corner and raised beds. Diagonally opposite is a second area of garden with a flat lawn, gravel path and a fine beech tree. Beyond this garden is a private car park with 11 spaces for the surrounding houses. Southern Lodge has the first two spaces, accommodating 4 cars.

Southern Lodge also has two adjoining gardens to the east, both of which have gates onto Greyfriars Garden. The conservatory opens onto a paved terrace in the first garden which has an Astroturf lawn with paths and beds around. There is a trellis and rhododendrons at the bottom of the garden where there are two sheds. The southern garden has a drying green and a putting lawn with stone walls around.

Directions

Approaching St Andrews on the A91 continue straight on towards North Street. Abbotsford Place is the lane on the right, shortly after Abbotsford Crescent.

Follow the lane around two sharp corners to a shared green. The front gate to Southern Lodge is on the left hand side. The private car parking spaces are beyond.