From time to time the Trust looks to appoint new Trustees, co-opt persons with specific skills on to the Board or seeks volunteers to assist with particular activities. Interested? Please provide a few details about yourself.
The history of St Andrews Harbour is one that spans the centuries and is inseparably linked with the life of the coastal town it serves; indeed at one time the very life-blood of it. No doubt the Harbour's footings are to be found in nothing more than the unimproved shores of the Kinness Burn, around which the early inhabitants of the town, then still known as Kilrymont, would go about their simple lives of fishing and farming. During medieval times and through to the 16th century the harbour would see significant development with the construction of the original stone built piers and quays to serve the many travellers and merchants of the time; the town developing as an important academic, ecclesiastical and trading centre. Today the 18th to 20th century extensions and developments to the Long (North) Pier and Cross Pier form the well-sheltered havens of the Outer and enclosed Inner Harbours, which are home to a small, but growing, flotilla of pleasure craft and a small fishing fleet that in its heyday would have numbered fifty vessels and more.
The long heritage associated with St Andrews Harbour is one that for a number of years many with connections to the town have been keen to protect and develop. In 1995 a steering committee, comprising various local organisations and national and local government bodies was established, which two years later produced a report on the regeneration of the harbour area. Although widely welcomed, funding that would have allowed these plans to be brought to fruition was regrettably not forthcoming. A new approach was required and after much public consultation the Harbour Trust, originally formed by an Act of Parliament in 1897, was reconstituted in 2010 to become a new Trust Port Authority operating in accordance with the Government 'Modernising Trust Ports - A Guide to Good Governance Initiative'.
The Harbour is managed by St Andrews Harbour Trust, which subsequent to its reconstitution has greater operating flexibility and acts to ensure that: the maintenance of the harbour is kept up to an acceptable level; facilities are adequate and regularly maintained; use of the harbour is controlled in a safe and efficient manner and any developments are in line with Trust's directives. The Trust aims to improve and promote St Andrews Harbour and its surrounding area to the benefit of resident and visiting harbour users and the local community.
