Guardbridge has a number of local amenities including a school, general store, garages, hotel, takeaway food shop, hairdresser, furniture maker, and bowling and fishing clubs.

The village takes its name from the 15th-century six-arched bridge built by Bishop Henry Wardlaw,[3] who founded the University of St Andrews.

Some have said the bridge was built to assist pilgrims en route to St Andrews; however, its purpose was to provide safe access for students to ensure the success of Wardlaw's university.

As alternatives are less credible, the theory that this may come from "gare", the French term for statio, an assembly point for pilgrims, retains some credence in academic sources.

This St Andrews Railway was closed in 1969, not as part of the Beeching cuts, as is commonly supposed, but by British Rail.