All the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death today have brought back memories of a special performance which Mary and I attended of the Bard’s “Scottish Play”, (since you are not supposed to use its title!)   It was about 1967, when we were students together at St Andrews.  The performance was outdoors, in the ruins of St Andrew’s Castle.  I still recall sitting there, wrapped up in blankets as the fog rolled in and shrouded the castle – very atmospheric and just the right setting for the witches.

In those far off days Students at St Andrews University wore red gowns most of the time.  Indeed if you wore your gown you were not charged for entrance to the ruins of the castle.  It was one of the favourite places to study for final exams in the warm days of early summer.

Sadly I don’t have any photographs of that Shakespeare performance, but I do have a slide of May Day celebrations at the castle when students in their red gowns greeted the dawn.   I even remember one year on May Day being brave enough to venture down to the sea below the castle walls and have a (very) quick dip. It snowed!   A BBC cameraman was there and we appeared for a few seconds on BBC Scotland news.