From sinner

In your first few days at St Andrews, you might be walking down, or even up, North Street when you notice people lurch quickly and comically to one side when passing St Salvator's Chapel. Don't worry, they're not drunk. Well, they might be but that is almost certainly not the reason for their strange actions. The reasons lie in one of the traditions of St Andrews. Yep, another one. Set into the cobbles outside Sallies Quad are the initials P.H., and it is considered absolutely fatal to your chances of a degree if you step on them. Postgrads are mysteriously immune to the curse of the PH cobbles. They commemorate Patrick Hamilton, a member of the university and the first Protestant martyr of the Scottish Reformation. He was burned at the stake at this very spot. It might be as well to avoid treading on the initials GW (outside the castle) which stand for George Wishart, and any of the various martyr's crosses around St Andrews. Just to be on the safe side. If you should accidentally step on the cobbles, then there is a remedy. Two, in fact. Some say that the only way to remove the curse is to take part in the May Dip. What a person would do if they stepped on the cobbles between their last May Dip and their finals is not recorded. An older tradition is that the way to lift the doom is to go around the light at the end of pier three times.

After three or four years of watching where they step, many students will mark the end of their studies by jumping up and down on the stones. Probably best to wait until you're sure you can't fail before doing that. Actually, wait until after you graduate.

Incidentally, you may also notice people staring at the church tower for no apparent reason. What they are looking at is a strange marking on one on the stones that is said to be Patrick Hamilton's face. The marking appeared, according to the story, as a result of the psychic power of his martyrdom, at the very moment he died.