When in Scotland don't forget Aberdeen
Although Aberdeen is Scotland's third largest city (230,000 inhabitants), capital of the European offshore oil industry, a university town, and used to be one of the richest cities in the United Kingdom, it is ignored by many visitors to Scotland. But I can assure you that it’s well worth a detour to visit Granite City, thus named by its inhabitants because most of its buildings are built with this quartz-rich rock which sparkles in the sun.
So if you’re planing a short visit to Aberdeen between 19th-22nd July 2025 for the Tall Ships Race which returns to Aberdeen after a 28-year break, or because you’re going to be playing golf on one of the innumerable golf courses in Aberdeenshire, then read on...
The metropolis stretches along the north-east coast of Scotland between the Rivers Dee in the south and the River Don in the north. The University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495 - the third oldest in Scotland and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom, occupies most of the narrow, cobbled streets of Old Aberdeen (contrary to expectation this is not the old town but a village that was separate from the city until 1891).
Visitors can stroll through this campus-free institution, moving across centuries faster than metres from the XVth Century King's College Chapel and its distinctive dome in a hollow crown shape to the XX1st Century library designed by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lasse, inaugurated in 2012 by Queen Elizabeth II and open to the public. Do go inside this iconic landmark of NW Scotland to admire its remarkable atrium with the swirly white balconies.
In Old Aberdeen you should also see the XIIth Century Church of Scotland’s Saint Machar cathedral, with a beautiful stained glass window and a unique heraldic ceiling. A somewhat gruesome detail is that one of the walls is said to contain Sir William Wallace’s left arm.This first great hero of Scottish Independence was executed in 1305 and his body cut up and sent to different parts of the country as a warning to other dissenters.
Just behind the cathedral along the River Don, the very pleasant Seaton Park is a favourite short cut for students between their lecture halls in Old Aberdeen and the university residences located to the north of the park.
Aberdeen's main shopping street, the straight as a drumstick Union Street, extends 1,287m westwards from Castlegate, very close to the port. Approximately in the middle, at n°106, there are six granite columns on either side of a monumental gate which is the entrance to the cemetery in the grounds of St Nicholas Uniting church whose granite spire is just visible over the top of the trees at the back.
On the corner of Union Street and King Street, the street parallel to the coast that leads to Old Aberdeen, lies one of Scotland's architectural marvels: Marischal College (pronounced “marshal”), the largest granite building in the world after the Escorial in Spain. Built in the XIXth Century for the University of Aberdeen, it has been rented to the city council since 2011. Just opposite, in the narrow Shiprow alley, is the very remarkable (and free!) Maritime Museum. I would not generally pay much attention to a museum about fishing and the oil industry but frankly here I was painlessly educated on the history of Aberdeen which is intimately tied firstly with herring and more recently with offshore oil. It’s the sort of museum I love because I left it having learned all sorts of things I’d been ignorant about when I entered, and I had fun in the process!
A 30-minute walk along the beach to the south (don't forget to look for dolphins), brings you to the very picturesque area of Footdee (Foot of the Dee), but the local and historical pronunciation "Fittie” is probably linked to the church of St Fittick which lies less than a kilometre to the south. In 1809 the municipality built 28 single-storey houses with thatched roofs for fishermen and their families around two squares: North Square and South Square. Then in about 1855 a third square, Pilot Square, surrounded by houses, was built for the port pilots. In the 1880s the houses were sold to tenants who personalized them and added one, or even two or three floors. Today this area is one of the most picturesque in the city with its brightly coloured houses and extravagantly decorated small gardens. Look out for the lovely mosaic of a mermaid.
Very close by there’s a distinctive octagonal building, somewhat confusingly called the Roundhouse. Tower-like, with its steeply sloping slate sides, this was the harbour captain’s station between 1798 and 2006 when the new Maritime Operations Centre was inaugurated a few metres away. The Roundhouse has since been transformed into offices.
Back in the city centre, don't miss the Merchant's Quarter, which is undergoing a renaissance, nestled in the small medieval streets to the north and south of Union Street. There are restaurants listed in the Michelin guide as well as fish 'n chips. Thank goodness for these because if you don’t want to eat dinner until after 9pm (because you’re from southern Europe and have been to the cinema first, for example) then fish ‘n chip shops are about the only food establishments still open at that time!
There are many beautiful parks in the city, including the 44 hectares of Duthie Park which stretches along the river Dee, but families enjoy pedal boats and kayaks on an artificial lake. The David Welch Conservatory in the park has the second largest collection of cacti in the UK, while the Cruickshank Botanic Garden in Old Aberdeen is the place to visit if you're interested in natural history.
I haven't told you about the museums, the golf courses in the city, or the eight castles less than an hour's drive away, but, as you will have understood, it's a corner of Scotland that will keep you busy for at least a week.
Apart from this, the one thing I have noticed over the years since I first started visiting Aberdeen regularly in 2008 and which has become particularly stark in the early 2020s is the apparent pauperisation of the city. Whereas in 2008 Union Street was a bustling shopping street with a wide variety of shops catering to all levels of income and taste, by 2022 (and of course in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic), I was saddened to see that many of the shops were boarded up and apparently permanently closed so naturally it follows that there are far fewer people. The economic situation is such that in this report on cities’ outlooks for 2024 there is a section which asks “What has happened in Aberdeen?” and this is their analysis:
“Aberdeen was one of the most prosperous cities in the UK in 2010, having the sixth highest disposable income and the 14th highest output per hour of all cities or large towns. But it has had a difficult period since. This shows both the upsides and the downsides of being dependent on a particular industry.
Around 30 % of jobs in Aberdeen’s export base – the part of the economy that trades with other areas of the UK and the world – are directly related to oil and gas. And unlike the 2000s, this sector struggled in the 2010s. The result is that the city has lost an estimated 9,000 jobs in areas related to oil and gas.
This is likely to have impacted the amount of money spent in the city – the number of retail jobs fell by almost 30% compared with 6 % nationally. And house prices have been affected too – averages were 3.4% higher in 2022 than in 2010 (compared with a national increase of 50%t) and were 15% down on their 2014 peak.”
However, the situation should turn around with almost £16bn of investment expected to come into the area between now and 2033 of which £32m will develop adventure tourism in the region.
