McIntosh Hall | Accommodation Overview

By far the closest hall to the Union is McIntosh Hall. The historic building used to be the Chattan Hotel but now plays home to over 200 students in the center of town. At Hall Committee training I found out that hall wardens have a taxi fund that pays for the taxi fee for any student that needs sent home (the student does need to pay it back), a member of the McIntosh committee did say to me that "if you need a taxi to get back to McIntosh from the Union then it's an ambulance you're needing not a taxi."

Being this close to the union makes going out on a Friday night super convenient but also makes shopping really easy being just a stone's throw from Tesco on Market Street. It's also in a good place for both Science and Arts students being about halfway between the North Haugh and the Quad and Main Library. It's also a similar distance from St Mary's Quad and the King James Library. McIntosh is probably the most central hall because it's not too far from anything. Despite being so central, being a little away from the main roads will mean you shouldn't be interrupted by loud, drunk students too often - unless they're in the hall of course.

McIntosh is a catered hall like most in St Andrews but being entirely catered it's most like Regs, JBH or Melville. This means that like those halls, it's extremely easy to make friends as everyone will eat together in halls 19 meals a week. There's a good number of both shared and single rooms in McIntosh but with roughly a third of students returning to the hall (and getting first dibs on the single rooms) most first years will have a roommate in McIntosh.

Like most of the catered halls, eating together leads to a massive amount of community spirit which makes the hall feel like it's own community more so than a self catered hall. It's something most residents will take a lot of pride in and can lead to a little bit of inter-hall rivalry. As some of you may have seen in my Sallies and Gannochy post, there's a bit of a rivalry between McIntosh and Sallies. Unfortunately the Senior Student of McIntosh never got back to me when I reached out for more information but I know the Sallies students do call McIntosh by the slightly less than kind, "McIntrash". Hall rivalries make the Clan Warfare event in Freshers Week a lot more exciting and can make Hall Sports (an inter-halls sports series at the Athletic Union) a bit fierce throughout the year.

Since I have no comments from the Senior Student for you in this post, I'll leave you with the comments of this years McIntosh Hall Committee Treasurer, Scarlett:

"McIntosh is amazing because it such a close knit community. By the end of the year the entire hall is friends. Part of the reason for that is shared meals, it provides an opportunity to get to know your hall mates. In addition, the committee regularly puts on events and activities for the residents, from games of assassin to Friday night socials. The location is also fantastic, it is 30s away from the union and relatively close to both North Haugh and the town. The hall also has TV rooms so you can have a calm movie night with friends or watch the Six Nations! McIntosh is such a welcoming environment and everyone has a place there."
Thanks to Scarlett for passing on a little more information about McIntosh. Next time, the final accommodation overview post - Andrew Melville Hall.

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