The Mystery of the St Andrews Cathedral: Reformation to Preservation

Scotland's largest cathedral has stood in ruins for centuries. Built in the 12th century, the St Andrews Cathedral was the ecclesiastical seat of the Catholic Church in Scotland until 1559, when the Reformation came to St Andrews. The Reformation marks the abandonment and subsequent decay of the Cathedral. The current historiography of the St Andrews Cathedral focuses on the pre-Reformation history of the space, and neglects to explain how the Cathedral initially fell into ruin or how the Cathedral continued to play a role in the town after 1559. Therefore, this project looks at the post-Reformation life of the St Andrews Cathedral and is primarily focused on the preservation history of the space. The project takes the form of a museum exhibit intervention for the St Andrews Cathedral Museum.