Martin,
As for the Scores Hotel, the buildings date back into the 1800s, but he use as a Hotel only dates back to the 1930s. Previously, one of the buildings was a school for boys and the other was a medical institute. The school was converted to a hotel in 1930's, and the other building was joined at some point later. The hotel website provides a brief history, and I have separately confirmed the existence of the school.
http://www.bw-scoreshotel.co.uk/hotelinformation/ I've searched extensively for references to any St. Andrews hotel referred to as the "Scores Hotel" before the 1930s, but I have found nothing. The first mention I have found was, I believe, 1932.
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Duncan, As much as I agree with you that Phil has helped make a mess of things here, I strongly disagree with your attempt to make him Ian's scapegoat in this particular instance. From my dealings with Phil off the site early on, I am convinced that all of the facts in the first story (including the bit about the Scores Hotel letterhead) came directly from Ian. Phil believed that the note was on Score's Hotel letterhead because Ian told him so, and when I first cast doubt on the truth of the story Phil demanded Ian send the letterhead as a test of whether Ian was telling the truth. It was not a detail that Phil had embellished.
Also, Ian reviewed and signed off on the accuracy of the first story, and Phil has told us repeatedly that all of the facts therein came from Ian.
Lastly, of course there never was "Scores Hotel letterhead." That is the point. The fact that they claimed they had such letterhead is in and of itself compelling evidence that their story is false. As for whether they would have gone through with producing fake letterhead, we'll never know because they changed their story when it was no longer convenient. Further reason not to believe either one of them.
Frankly, I am not sure why you keep trying to explain away the factual problems with their story in favor of your admittedly "far-fetched" hypothesis.