Overview of Guardbridge

A village in Leuchars Parish, E Fife, Guardbridge lies on a road junction at the head of the River Eden estuary 3 miles (5 km) northwest of St Andrews.

The six-arched Old Guard Bridge or Gaire Brig was built in the 15th century by Bishop Henry Wardlaw of St Andrews and repaired a century later by Archbishop James Beaton. The village developed at crossings over the River Eden and Motray Water, and during the Middle Ages it is said that pilgrims used to gather here before making the final journey under guard to the holy shrine at St Andrews.

A distillery founded here by William Haig in 1810 was converted to a paper mill in 1873, and the village grew to accommodate the workers. The manufacture of paper remained the leading local industry until the closure of the mill in 2008. The village is now principally a dormitory settlement for St. Andrews and Dundee.