Join me for a walk around the gorgeous Granite City of Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland. Famous for its spectacular architecture, thriving oil industry, and a wealth of intriguing tales which speak to the city’s immense local pride and character, there’s so much that makes Aberdeen one of the nation’s greatest cities of all.
On our walk around Aberdeen, we pass a number of captivating landmarks, including the Castlegate, Salvation Army Citadel, Aberdeen Mercat Cross, Aberdeen Town House, the Tolbooth, the Marischal College, the statue of Robert the Bruce, Provost Skene’s House, the Russel Head, the statue of Denis Law, St. Nicholas’ Church (Mither Kirk of Aberdeen), the Smith Screen, Union Street, Belmont Street, Patagonian Court, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Robert Gordon’s College, the Denburn Valley, His Majesty’s Theatre, the statue of William Wallace, Union Terrace Gardens, the statue of Robert Burns, Union Terrace, Aberdeen Music Hall, Union Bridge, Back Wynd Stairs, the Old Kings Highway Pub, The Green, Aberdeen Railway Station, Union Square Shopping Centre, Aberdeen Harbour & Port, Shiprow, Aberdeen Maritime Museum, Provost Ross’s House, the Mannie Well, and Old Blackfriars Pub.
Thank you so much to the following sites for their help in my research of Aberdeen:
https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/Aberdeen%20History%20Trail_1.pdf
https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2021-12/Aberdeen%20Granite%20Trail_0.pdf
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen-aberdeenshire/1895250/salvation-army-celebrates-140-years-in-aberdeens-citadel/
https://www.aberdeenlive.news/news/history/aberdeen-castle-mysterious-structure-gave-7918163
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/russell-head
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen-aberdeenshire/6301156/the-russel-head/
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen-aberdeenshire/701600/short-history-building-union-street-left-aberdeen-bankrupt/
https://www.aberdeenlive.news/news/aberdeen-news/new-pictures-belmont-quarter-revamp-7066932
https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/5812
https://www.visitabdn.com/listing/war-memorial-lion
https://hiddenscotland.co/william-wallace-and-the-siege-of-dunnottar-castle/
https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/how-north-east-granite-paved-the-streets-of-london-1476405
https://www.aberdeenlive.news/news/aberdeen-news/birthplace-3000-vessels-aberdeens-proud-6619621
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kellys-cats
https://www.visitabdn.com/listing/merchant-quarter
https://humphrysfamilytree.com/Aedie/house.green.html
https://hiddenscotland.com/listings/the-green-aberdeen
0:00 The Castlegate
0:12 Coming up on our walk in Aberdeen…
0:50 The Castlegate
1:03 Salvation Army Citadel & Aberdeen Mercat Cross
2:02 Gordon Highlanders Statue
2:41 The Castlegate
2:57 Aberdeen Town House & Tolbooth
4:37 Union Street
5:09 Broad Street
6:01 Marischal College
7:33 Statue of Robert the Bruce
8:15 Marischal College
8:25 Provost Skene’s House
9:55 Russel Head
10:22 Statue of Denis Law
11:05 Marischal College
12:12 Upperkirkgate
13:22 Bon Accord Shopping Centre
13:34 Upperkirkgate
14:03 St. Nicholas’ Kirk (Mither Kirk)
16:46 Smith Screen
17:14 Union Street
18:10 Belmont Street
18:53 Patagonian Court
19:19 Belmont Street
20:56 Aberdeen Art Gallery
21:10 Robert Gordon’s College
21:56 Triple Kirks
22:13 Aberdeen Art Gallery
22:38 Aberdeen Civic War Memorial
23:30 Denburn Valley
24:00 His Majesty’s Theatre
24:56 Statue of William Wallace
26:10 Union Terrace Gardens
26:50 Aberdeen Sign
27:26 Union Terrace Gardens
29:13 Statue of Robert Burns
29:50 Union Terrace
30:53 Union Street
32:04 Aberdeen Music Hall
32:53 Union Street
34:08 Union Bridge
35:12 Union Street
35:56 Back Wynd Stairs
36:32 The Green
37:50 Stirling Street
38:56 Guild Street
40:13 Aberdeen Railway Station & Union Square
40:55 Station Hotel
41:41 Guild Street
43:02 Aberdeen Harbour
43:48 Market Street
44:02 Shiprow
45:10 Aberdeen Maritime Museum
46:04 Provost Ross’s House
46:38 Shiprow
47:19 Aberdeen Town House
47:57 Mannie Well
48:28 Castle Street
48:48 Old Blackfriars
49:00 The Castlegate
49:52 Thank you for watching!
Welcome to Aberdeen, the third-largest city in
Scotland – famous for its lively atmosphere, riveting history, and wealth of stunning
architecture, from mighty medieval landmarks like the sixteenth-century Provost
Skene’s House to the mesmerizingly beautiful granite-built Marischal College, which stand on
the captivating streets of a city that’s filled with stories wherever you look, with everything
from a towering statue of William Wallace, Scotland’s national hero, to a great
church dedicated to Santa Claus himself, and an array of historic waterside lanes which
hug the perimeter of the city’s busy port, where huge ships depart for remote oil rigs
and far-flung islands in the North Sea. All of that and so much more is to come as
we take a tour of the sights and streets of Aberdeen on a sunny summer’s day – but we
begin our walk right at the heart of the city, in an area known as the Castlegate. Focused around this famous square, the
Castlegate has been at the centre of Aberdeen’s history for well over 700 years
– as the name suggests, it was here where there once stood Aberdeen Castle, a great
medieval fortress now consigned to history. In its place, there now stand two famous
city landmarks – the Salvation Army Citadel, a towering Victorian-era church which
is actually styled much like a castle in its own right, and just in front of
it – Aberdeen’s historic Mercat Cross, one of the oldest structures you’ll find in
the city today, dating from the year 1686. The Mercat Cross was built as the central feature
of Aberdeen’s historic marketplace, this square serving as the place where local merchants would
set up stalls to sell their wares not just to fellow Aberdonians, but also a steady flow of
international visitors to the city, as Aberdeen developed a strong trading relationship with
merchants across the sea in continental Europe. When they arrived, those European
merchants found a bustling city filled with local pride – just here we find
a statue dedicated to the Gordon Highlanders, a regiment of the British Army
which hailed from Aberdeen. Depicting soldiers from different
eras of the regiment’s history, the statue stands just a stone’s throw
from where the Gordon Highlanders’ barracks were once located – on Castlehill,
the site of the original Aberdeen Castle, just behind the spot where the
Salvation Army Citadel stands now. Now the medieval castle was in truth quite
short-lived, built in the late 13th century, and destroyed shortly after, having been
captured by Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, who successfully expelled an enemy English
garrison during a vicious siege in the year 1308. But while Aberdeen may no longer
be home to a great castle, there are plenty more majestic landmarks
to marvel at – few more majestic than the great buildings of the city’s main
street, Aberdeen’s famous ‘Granite Mile’. As we’ll see throughout our walk, many
of Aberdeen’s grandest landmarks are built from locally-quarried granite
stone, which have a rather sleek grey colour – and just here, we’re looking
across towards the elegant Town House, another of the most iconic buildings
of Aberdeen, the Granite City. Famous for its soaring clock tower, Aberdeen’s
Town House – home to the city council – was built on a grand scale back in 1874, but
there’s more to it than first meets the eye. It was built in the Victorian era as the
city’s population began to grow rapidly, and local officials decided that
Aberdeen’s former town house, known as the Tolbooth, didn’t
meet the needs of the modern city. However, rather than demolishing the old Tolbooth, which was built more than 400 years ago in
1616, they decided to incorporate it into the new Town House – and behind the spectacular
Victorian granite façade we’re looking at here, you’ll find the structure of the original
17th-century Tolbooth still standing. Inside, it’s home to the Tolbooth Museum
– home to exhibitions on local history, and the fantastically-preserved remains of
the Tolbooth’s 400 year-old jail – making it one of the highlights along the length of
Aberdeen’s main thoroughfare here, Union Street. Running dead straight for about a mile through
the city centre, Union Street was built to relieve the strain caused by the cramped, narrow
and hilly streets and lanes of medieval Aberdeen, and was quite the feat of engineering, cutting
through hills and bridging deep valleys. Later on in our walk, we’ll see the
obstacles that Union Street came up against, and how its construction nearly
bankrupted the city of Aberdeen, during a period of sweeping change and renewal. As we know, Aberdeen’s history stretches back
hundreds of years, but much of the city that we see today is a product of the 19th, 20th and
21st centuries, a period when Aberdeen’s fortunes rose dramatically, first as a major port where
shipbuilding and fishing industries prospered, and later as a hub for Britain’s oil industry,
this city known as the nation’s ‘oil capital’. Situated on Scotland’s northeast coast, looking
towards the oil fields of the North Sea, Aberdeen is also the most remote major city in the UK
today, located some eighty miles from the nearest big city of Inverness, and around one hundred
miles from the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. Despite this geographic isolation, Aberdeen
has long been a vibrant centre of industry and learning – a truth demonstrated in
eye-catching fashion by what is surely the city’s most beautiful building,
the mesmerizing Marischal College. Again built from Aberdeen’s distinctive
sparkling stone, the Marischal College is actually the second-largest granite building
in the world, and it was built back in the 1830s as the main building of one of what
were once two universities in this city. That’s right, for centuries Aberdeen was
home to a pair of rival universities, the Marischal College based
here – and the King’s College, based about a mile to the north of
here in the area known as Old Aberdeen. The King’s College came first, founded in
1495, and just under a century later the Marischal College was established in 1593. Bear
in mind at this time, Aberdeen – with its two institutes – had the same number of universities
as the whole of England, Oxford and Cambridge. Much like Oxford and Cambridge, Aberdeen’s King’s
and Marischal Colleges were rivals for centuries, but eventually, in the year 1860, the
two merged to form what we now know as the University of Aberdeen, one of
the most prestigious in Scotland. The grandeur of the Marischal College’s
main building here leaves no doubts as to the university’s acclaim, while just in front of
it there stands a statue of perhaps Scotland’s most celebrated monarch – Robert the Bruce,
the 14th-century King of Scots who famously laid siege to Aberdeen Castle to expel the
English – one of many fatal blows the Scottish King dealt the enemy on his road to victory
in the First War of Scottish Independence. Befitting one of Scotland’s national
heroes, this statue of Robert the Bruce stands proudly before Aberdeen’s most beautiful
building, a building which may have begun life as the home of the Marischal College, but sadly
is no longer used for university business. Since 2009, the city council have been leasing
this famous building from the university to use as part of their headquarters – as the centre
of education in this city has shifted decidedly to the medieval streets of Old Aberdeen,
which we’ll talk more about a little later. But speaking of medieval Aberdeen, here in the city centre, nestled among the granite
and glass buildings of recent decades, there stands one of the most impressive
local landmarks of the Middle Ages. This beautiful, four-storey stone building
is known as Provost Skene’s House, and it was built nearly 500 years ago in 1545.
Ever since then, the house has rather remarkably remained largely intact, now home to a
museum inside detailing the stories of some of Aberdeen’s most famous sons
and daughters through the centuries. One of those famous figures was a man
named George Skene, formerly the Provost, effectively the chairman of
the local council, of Aberdeen. A well-known face in the city, Provost
Skene bought this house in the year 1699, and ever since it’s been named after him –
though there are plenty more intriguing stories associated with this house. In 1746, Scotland was gripped by the
events of the Jacobite rebellion against the British King George II, and in
the final stages of the rebellion, Provost Skene’s House here was used by the King’s
troops as a base in the weeks before they advanced towards Culloden just outside Inverness, where
the Jacobite rebellion was famously put down. Here on the corner of the house, meanwhile, is
a rather frightening metal face – known as the Russel Head. It was the brainchild of a local shop
owner named George Russel, whose bakery was shut down after complaints from a neighbour – so he
took his revenge by carving this grotesque image of his own face, so that his neighbour would have
to look him in the eyes for the rest of his days. Not all the likenesses in this part of town are
quite so repulsive, though, because here we find a statue of none other than footballing great Denis
Law, born in the Woodside area of Aberdeen back in 1940, and who rose to international stardom as
part of the legendary Manchester United Trinity, alongside Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best,
while also breaking records in 1962, as the most expensive British footballer for his time, and in
1964 as the first, and to this date only, Scottish player to win the award for European Footballer of
the Year, an award now known as the Ballon d’Or. Denis Law is one of a long list of
famous names to call Aberdeen home, a list that includes everyone from singer
Annie Lennox to the famed painter William Dyce, who actually studied at the Marischal College
just before this new granite building was opened. But as we mentioned, this famous city landmark is
now no longer used for university business – after the merger between the Marischal and King’s
Colleges, many of the teaching departments based here began moving to the quieter
surroundings of Old Aberdeen, a beautiful area of Aberdeen where medieval chapels and
university halls crowd around narrow, cobbled streets – quite different from the grandeur of
the modern city centre we’re exploring here. Now we won’t quite have time to visit Old
Aberdeen on our tour of the city today, as it’s located a good mile north of where we
are now, close to the mouth of the River Don, one of two rivers which flank the
modern city of Aberdeen on either side. Historically, the area of Old Aberdeen was the
main centre of settlement here – in fact the city’s name, ‘Aberdeen’ literally refers to that
location, meaning ‘the mouth of the River Don’. But, just a mile south of the Don,
you’ll find the mouth of another river, the River Dee, and it was around this
river mouth that a separate settlement, known as New Aberdeen, grew up later in history
– as a centre of fishing and cross-sea trade. Over time, Old and New Aberdeen, for a
long time distinct burghs from one another, merged into one major city – but while
university life may have shifted decidedly north towards the banks of the River Don,
the city’s economic hub went the other way, moving south towards the River Dee,
where the development of a major port gave birth to the bustling city centre
that we find ourselves exploring now. Later on, we’ll venture down to Aberdeen’s
busy port, an integral part of the city’s economy for centuries, but just here,
we find ourselves on Upperkirkgate, a street whose profile has been largely
unchanged since the era of medieval Aberdeen. With the exception of the modern granite buildings
and Bon Accord shopping centre, you’ll notice that Upperkirkgate gradually winds up and down along
the natural hills of central Aberdeen – unlike the major Union Street, built to be as straight
and flat as possible in the 19th century. As we mentioned earlier, the building of Union
Street was key to relieving Aberdeen’s growing pains as its old streets and lanes became ever
more cramped – and so to showcase the difference between this naturally undulating medieval
street and the more recent main thoroughfare, we’ll now make our way towards Union Street, but
to get there – we need to make our way through the grounds of St. Nicholas’ Kirk, known as the
‘Mither Kirk’, or the Mother Church of Aberdeen. Home to just under 900 years of recorded history, Aberdeen’s Mither Kirk can trace its
origins back to the mid-12th century, although the huge church building that stands
today is an enlarged version of the original – in fact this was the largest burgh church in
all of Scotland in the late medieval era. Surrounding the impressive church building is a
rather expansive kirkyard, busy with gravestones and the final resting places of many of Aberdeen’s
most notable names through the centuries. The vengeful bakery owner George Russel is buried
here, as is famed local painter William Dyce, and the 19th century architect Archibald
Simpson, often credited with many of Aberdeen’s most impressive granite buildings,
which earned it the nickname of The Granite City. In keeping with so much of the city,
St. Nicholas’ Kirk here is also built of granite – although only partially. The side
of the building that we’re walking around here, known as the West Kirk, is
actually built of sandstone, and is the older of what were effectively
two separate churches in one building. After the Scottish Reformation
in the late 16th century, it was decided to split the kirk in two
to create two separate places of worship, a move that was said to enhance
participation in religious services. As we see it today, then, the West Kirk dates
from a rebuild in the 1750s, and the East Kirk, at the far end of the building, was
reconstructed after a fire in the 1870s. But together, they form Aberdeen’s famous
Mither Kirk, dedicated to none other than St. Nicholas, a man who’s often
known more widely as Santa Claus. The association here is rather interesting
– alongside his yuletide persona, St. Nicholas is also the patron
saint of merchants and sailors, and as such was chosen as the patron saint of
New Aberdeen here, focused around the port. As we mentioned earlier, due to geographic
isolation with the rest of Britain, Aberdeen held close trading relationships with
merchants across the sea in mainland Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, a nation where
St. Nicholas is also known as Sinter Klaas. It’s from the Dutch Sinter Klaas
that we get the name Santa Claus, a more common moniker in Scotland for the
legendary gift-giver than Father Christmas, a name which originated south
of the border in England. But Christmas chat seems unusual on a summer’s
day like this, as the sun beats down over this impressive feature of the Kirkyard, a mighty
granite screen known as the Smith Screen. It was built back in 1829 as part of the
wider redevelopment of the city centre, providing a separation between the
tranquil grounds of St. Nicholas’ Kirkyard, and the action of the
then newly-built Union Street, the famous main thoroughfare which bulldozes
its way through the very heart of Aberdeen. Here, we can look all the way down Union
Street back towards the Castlegate, where we started our walk ,
and marvel at just how wide, flat and straight it is compared with
many of the city’s older streets. Named to mark the Union between
Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, Union Street – a little quieter than normal
today due to roadworks – was an immense feat of early 19th century engineering as part
of the wider project to modernise Aberdeen. That being said, it was an expensive endeavour,
and one which effectively bankrupted the city, as viaducts were built to bridge
deep valleys, and rows and rows of houses were bought up to be demolished,
making way for the street that exists now. But branching off Union Street even
today is a network of older streets, including Belmont Street just here. Recently redeveloped as part of Aberdeen’s
Cultural Quarter, Belmont Street is home to a wealth of intriguing spots – including the
former South Parish Church of 1830 just here, a church which is no longer used for worship
– and is instead home to a popular city pub! Complete with an eerie interior and some fetching
Dracula-themed décor, it’s inside what was once one of the city’s many impressive granite churches
that Aberdonians now down their pints and belt out karaoke tunes on Monday evenings – just a stone’s
throw away from another point of local interest. According to legend, it was down Patagonian
Court here that King Robert the Bruce chased the English after removing them from
Aberdeen Castle back in 1308, but today, it’s said to be so-named because boats, some
of which came all the way from Patagonia, at the very southern tip of South America,
used to moor at the bottom of this staircase, which descends down towards the floor
of the Denburn Valley, which cuts deep through what is now the middle of Aberdeen.
Bridging the Denburn Valley, known locally as ‘The Den’ was one of the main engineering challenges
during the construction of Union Street, but for a long time the valley served as a symbolic
frontier between the heart of New Aberdeen and the countryside beyond – that was until the city began
to grow in size around the late 18th century. The beautiful Belmont Street here dates
from that period, as before the 1780s, this was simply open land used for pasture. Today, however, it’s home to an array of
eye-catching buildings, among them the former Congregational Church of St. Nicholas here, which
was built in 1865, but is now used as a nightclub – as Belmont Street has evolved in recent years
as a central part of Aberdeen’s famous nightlife. But back when the street was first
laid out in the late 18th century, it was developed as a retreat for some of the
city’s wealthiest citizens from the hustle and bustle of the Castlegate, with houses built
overlooking the scenery of the Den down below. However, as the speed of development in the
city hastened, streets and houses were laid out far beyond the bounds of the Den,
the valley instead being converted into an elegant green space then known as the
Denburn Gardens, and in a few moments, we too will wander down to the valley floor
to explore what those gardens look like today. For now, though, we’ve reached
the top of Belmont Street, across the road from which there
stand a pair of imposing buildings. Directly in front of us is Aberdeen Art Gallery, the city’s acclaimed gallery which opened its
doors back in 1885, and just next door to it, we find the gates of Robert Gordon’s College,
one of the city’s most prestigious schools. The school is named after Robert Gordon, an Aberdonian merchant who made his
fortune trading in mainland Europe, and he returned to his home city here to found a
school and a university in the mid-18th century. Famously, it was at this school
that none other than Lord Byron, the famous Romantic poet, was educated
in the 1790s, while just outside the school gates – there now stands a statue
to one Charles George Gordon, a celebrated general of the British Army who’s one of many
people from this city to bear the Gordon name. As you’ll no doubt know, Scotland is a nation
of historic clans, and as we look back across the road towards the famous Triple Kirks
church, one church which split into three back in the mid-19th century – it was in this area
of Scotland where Clan Gordon was a leading force. Tracing their origins back to the borderlands
between Scotland and England in the medieval era, Clan Gordon rose to become one of Scotland’s
most powerful clans through time, occupying a vast territory in the Highlands, much
of which is now part of Aberdeenshire. Even today, the clan’s seat is at the beautiful
Aboyne Castle – just 20 miles upstream along the River Dee from here – and if you’re in
Aberdeen for long enough, you’re almost certain to bump into someone with the surname Gordon,
a likely link to this region’s historic clan. Gordons of all eras have played a part in shaping
the region and city’s history – including many who lost their lives while fighting
in the World Wars of the 20th century. They are among more than 5,000 names commemorated here at Aberdeen’s grand war
memorial, unveiled back in 1925. Famous for its large granite lion sculpture, the war memorial stands on the corner of the
Cowdray Hall, a large concert hall opened in the same year by King George V – one of
a number of impressive structures in this area that were designed to ‘encourage a taste
for art and music in the city of Aberdeen’. The concert hall, alongside
Aberdeen’s Art Gallery, stand on one side of the Denburn Valley, which
we can see stretching out before us just here. The valley takes its name from the Den Burn,
a small stream which flows through Aberdeen at this point, although now inside an underground
culvert beneath the road, which runs alongside a railway line, and the grounds of what
were once known as the Denburn Gardens. We’ll drop down to take a walk around
the modern gardens in a second, but standing tall above them on this side of
the valley, we find His Majesty’s Theatre, a beautiful Edwardian-era playhouse
that was opened back in 1906. It’s a theatre of true splendour both
inside and out – comedian Billy Connolly once described a gig there as like
‘performing inside a wedding cake’, a wedding cake with room for an audience
of more than 1,400 people – making it the largest performing arts venue
in the northeast of Scotland. Over more than a century of history,
a wide variety of plays have graced the stage at His Majesty’s Theatre,
everything from modern West End and Broadway productions to Shakespearean
classics – speaking of the Bard, his famous play Macbeth is based on the
tale of the real-life King of Scotland, whose story came to an end when he died in
battle at Lumphanan, just 25 miles from Aberdeen. Macbeth is of course a world-famous
figure of Scottish history, but far from the only one – because here in front
of the theatre there stands a huge statue of none other than William Wallace,
one of Scotland’s national heroes. Best-known for his military genius, and leading
an underdog Scottish army to defeating the invading English at the Battle of Stirling
Bridge, Wallace also pulled off an unlikely victory close to Aberdeen here, just a few
miles down the coast at Dunnottar Castle. Perched on high rocky cliffs
overlooking the North Sea, the medieval Dunnottar Castle was renowned as
almost unconquerable, yet in an offensive of 1297, William Wallace led a siege against
the seemingly impregnable fortress, which was being held by a force of as many
as 4,000 English troops – and remarkably, his siege was a success, as his armies broke down
the castle walls and overwhelmed the English. Today, Wallace’s statue in Aberdeen stands
proudly at heart of the city, looking down over the Denburn Valley, inside which you’ll
find one of the best open spaces in Aberdeen. Once known as the Denburn Gardens,
these are now Union Terrace Gardens, and they provide eye-catching views of the
city from down below, as some of the most beautiful buildings from throughout Aberdeen’s
history rise into the sky above on all sides. Now Union Terrace Gardens have changed their shape
on numerous occasions through history – they began as landscaped Victorian-era gardens, complete
with a bandstand, in 1879 – but most recently, the gardens were redeveloped in 2022, and now
play host to one of Aberdeen’s most photogenic spots – the Aberdeen sign, which stands at
the foot of the gardens’ main staircase, beneath the Wallace statue
and His Majesty’s Theatre. Unveiled in 2023, these big letters
originally stood at the Castlegate, with Union Street serving as a backdrop, but
they were later moved here to Union Terrace Gardens, and they hope to serve as a symbol of
Aberdeen’s appeal to tourists in the modern day. Indeed, millions of people from all around
the world visit Scotland every year – but many seek out the capital of Edinburgh,
as well as the Highlands around Loch Ness, and the islands of the Inner
Hebrides as their main destinations. Aberdeen, on the other side of the country, is a bit more underrated as a tourist
destination, but as we’ve already seen from just under half an hour of exploring
the city – there’s plenty to see and do here. As we look up towards the buildings of Union
Terrace, the street which gives these gardens their current name, not only are the museums and
major landmarks of Aberdeen that we’ve passed by all worth a visit – but the cobbled streets
of Old Aberdeen, the centre of the university, is too – as is the beautiful countryside which
surrounds the city, home to everything from the rugged Cairngorm mountains to an almost
endless collection of historic castles, including Balmoral – for decades a favourite
country retreat of the British royal family. All of those destinations and more are within
easy reach of Aberdeen if you fancy a day trip while you’re here, but of course the city
centre is full of treats too – and Union Terrace Gardens here is a great place
to take a rest as you explore Aberdeen. And once you’ve explored the floor of
the sunken gardens and snapped a photo with the Aberdeen sign, take a walk back
up to street level, and admire this view across the Den towards the houses and church
spires of Belmont Street on the other side. As we discovered earlier, Belmont Street
was originally laid out in the late 18th century as the place for the homes of
some of Aberdeen’s wealthiest citizens, but as the city continued to expand,
in the following century a new street on the opposite side of the valley
was built, that being Union Terrace. Developed around the same time as Union
Street, and named for the same reasons, Union Terrace is one of Aberdeen’s
most splendid streets, complete with yet more impressive statues, like this one
of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. Surprisingly, in his day Robert Burns
wasn’t all too keen on the city of Aberdeen, he visited this place in 1787 and
described it simply as ‘a lazy town’. But, that visit came just a couple
of decades before almost all of the buildings that we see around us now,
as Aberdeen’s economy and industry began to boom like never before as the
Industrial Revolution reached its peak. As we take in a beautiful view across the
lush greenery of the Den from the vantage point of Union Terrace, Aberdeen
may have started out life as a pair of rival burghs on two separate
rivers, but over the last 250 years, the city has firmly established itself as
one of Scotland’s economic powerhouses. For centuries, Aberdeen was home
to a modest manufacturing sphere, the city best-known for
textile and paper production, but as the 18th century rolled around,
heavier industry began to take charge. The first step was the growth of Aberdeen’s
granite industry – more than half of the buildings in the city centre here are made
from granite extracted in quarries on the outskirts of Aberdeen, but the stone was also
exported far beyond the city’s boundaries. To this day, you’ll find Aberdonian granite
all over the world – everywhere from the pavements of London to skyscrapers in New
York City – and most of it was extracted from just one quarry in the suburbs of Aberdeen. That would be the old Rubislaw Quarry, which
opened all the way back in 1740 and remained in operation until 1971, during which time
more than six million tonnes of granite were extracted from the earth, leaving behind one
of the biggest man-made holes in all of Europe, still visible today in the West End of the city. But while this may be The Granite City, there was
more than one string to Aberdeen’s industrial bow. Throughout the 19th century, the
port here became an especially crucial arm in the city’s economy,
as Aberdeen became a major hub of shipbuilding – more than 3,000 ships
were built here during the period. Simultaneously, fishing – though for centuries
already a major industry – stepped up a gear as technology developed, allowing fishermen to
venture deeper into the North Sea on modern trawler vessels, and bring back huge quantities
of fish – in fact by the late Victorian era, Aberdeen was Scotland’s leading white fish port. All of this industry brought great wealth to the
city, allowing it to modernise and build grand new landmarks like the building we see just across
the street here, Aberdeen’s famous Music Hall. It was originally built as the City Assembly
Rooms back in 1820, but later developed as a major entertainment venue, hosting everything from
rock concerts to opera and more, but the venue is probably best-known as the host of the traditional
Freedom of the City ceremonies, a local ceremony which has a history dating back to the very
beginnings of Aberdeen in the 12th century. Back then, the Freedom of the City came
with it a right to trade in Aberdeen, but today it’s purely honorific – having
been awarded to a wide range of famous names, from local legends including Denis
Law to Glasgow-born Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager who took Aberdeen football club to
three league titles, four Scottish Cups and two European trophies in the early 1980s – including
a famous extra-time victory over Real Madrid. Just across the road, meanwhile, we’re passing by the old Caledonian Hotel – historically
one of Aberdeen’s most luxurious hotels, which opened back in 1892, as the city’s
industry was at the top of its game. But this economic prosperity didn’t come
without its ups and downs – after all, we know that the city was effectively bankrupted by
the construction of Union Street here, and it’s at this point that we reach what was almost certainly
one of the most expensive parts of the project. Designed to relieve the fast-growing city centre
of the strain caused by its historically hilly and cramped streets and lanes, Union Street
had to iron out all of the obstacles of Aberdeen’s geography if it was going to work –
but that of course included the Denburn Valley. The solution was this, Union Bridge, which was
built over the valley over the course of four years between 1801 and 1805 – finally linking
the Castlegate with the west of Aberdeen. Having stood on the valley floor just a few
minutes ago, we know how wide and deep the Den is, and so Union Bridge had to be a groundbreaking
feat of engineering to get all the way across. Today complete with a delightful line
of decorative cast iron leopards, known locally as Kelly’s Cats – Union
Bridge was built to stand 50 feet above the floor of the Den, and run for 130ft
from one side of the valley to the other. That makes it – to this day – the largest
single-span granite bridge in the world, crossing a valley that was technically
difficult to bridge, and eye-wateringly expensive too – costing the city £13,000,
equivalent to £1.4 million in today’s money. Of course that, as we cross back
onto the other side of the Den, was just one part of the Union Street
construction project – and so it’s no wonder that the city’s finances
suffered so greatly as a result. But fortunately, the impact was fairly
short-lived, as Aberdeen’s shipbuilding and fishing industries continued to
grow throughout the 19th century, recouping the losses of this mighty street, which
in the end has proved essential in the growth of the city into its current shape – the largest
urban area outside of Scotland’s Central Belt. And it’s a city which continues to grow even to
this day, because while traditional industries have subsided, Aberdeen’s fortunes have
continued to rise on the back of the oil industry – a vital part of the city today,
which we’ll talk more about a little later on. For now, though it’s time to make our way
off Union Street, and down into Aberdeen’s historic Merchant Quarter, which we’ll find at the
bottom of this huge staircase, Back Wynd Stairs. As we walk down, look to the left and note
some old stonework – that was part of an old medieval house, known as Aedie’s House,
which stood where these steps are today. It was demolished in 1922 to
make way for Back Wynd Stairs, in order to restore a direct link between
the Mither Kirk up the hill, and an important area of Aberdeen known as The Green.
Immediately at the bottom of Back Wynd Stairs, there stands a pub known as The
Old Kings Highway, an inn which claims to be the oldest in all of Aberdeen,
established nearly 300 years ago in 1741. It’s one of a number of pubs, bars and
cafes that you’ll find in what’s now known as Aberdeen’s Merchant Quarter, an area
of the city focused around The Green just here. Now in all truth, this is much more
granite than green today – but this point in the city takes its name
from a once grassy area that may have been the centre of Aberdeen
long before the city was even born. The Aberdeen we know today may be around 900 years
old, but people have lived here, at the mouth of the River Dee, for much longer – in fact The Green
may have been the place where prehistoric peoples lived as many as 8,000 years ago, and crafted
tools for hunting and fishing out of flint. Not much else is known about prehistoric
Aberdeen, but by the Middle Ages the Green remained the central point of the settlement,
thanks largely to its proximity to the river mouth and harbour – the lifeblood of
Aberdeen for so much of its history. In the 13th century, monasteries
were established around the Green, and monks engaged with traders at the natural
harbour on the River Dee, at the beginning of Aberdeen’s long road to becoming one of
Scotland’s most active trading ports. As we mentioned at the beginning of our walk, the
Castlegate grew to be the centre of Aberdeen’s markets, with local traders selling not just
to fellow citizens, but also a steady flow of international merchants, who had come to Aberdeen
from across the sea in continental Europe. Geographically isolated from the rest of Britain,
Aberdeen’s most direct links with other markets were across the sea, and throughout the centuries,
Aberdonians voyaged across to the Hanseatic ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Danzig and more on the North
and Baltic Seas, bringing back with them not just a wide range of goods, but also new ideas that
were out of reach for other parts of Britain. It’s for this reason that Aberdeen has long
prided itself as a centre of cultural exchange and innovation – through the centuries this
city has pioneered everything from the world’s first full-body MRI scanner to Scotland’s
very first all-seated football stadium, as well as one of Aberdeen’s most widespread
claims to fame – self-sealing envelopes – the kind that you don’t have to lick to close
– were invented here back in the 1890s. There’s plenty more to Aberdeen’s historic
international links which make it a thoroughly unique city, but of course as time
went on, and technology developed, this city – once separated from the rest
of Britain by mountains and sea – finally gained a stable link with its own
country in the form of the railways. The railways first rolled into Aberdeen in 1850, when a station was built close to the banks of
the River Dee in the Ferryhill area of the city. But today, trains arrive and depart into
Aberdeen’s huge central railway station, which we find just here – beside the
recent Union Square development – an excellent shopping centre nestled between the
railway tracks and the city’s main harbour. The shops and restaurants of
Union Square, opened in 2009, are a great reason for people in surrounding
towns to visit the big city of Aberdeen – but the railway station serves far more than
just those in the nearby countryside. Trains depart throughout the day from here to
Glasgow and Edinburgh – as well as a couple which go all the way down to London – a seven and
a half hour journey along the length of Britain. But if you think that’s a long train ride – it’s
nothing compared to Aberdeen’s most famous railway service. At just after 8 o’clock in the morning, a
train departs from Aberdeen station here, and sets out towards the town of Penzance, close to the
tip of Cornwall in the very south-west of Britain. It’s an epic 13 and a half hour journey
that covers more than 700 miles, and stops at 45 stations along the way. Unsurprisingly, it’s the longest scheduled
train journey in the UK today – and an extremely scenic way to take in all the scenery
that the country has to offer in just one day. If you’re coming the other way from Penzance,
you might roll off the train and immediately make for the Station Hotel here – which
dates from 1890 – but fortunately, marathon train journeys aren’t the only way
to reach Aberdeen if you’re coming from afar. Just to the northwest of the city
is Aberdeen International Airport, one of the country’s busiest airports. Like many others around Britain, Aberdeen’s
airport serves to take passengers to a wide array of overseas destinations, everywhere
from the Mediterranean to the Norwegian coast, but it’s also the destination for
many domestic flights – which are a popular way to reach the city
instead of the lengthy train ride. Flights to Aberdeen arrive and depart
from major cities all over the UK, including London, Manchester,
Belfast, Birmingham and more. However, in recent decades, the airport has become
busier not with planes, but helicopters, which are used to transport people from Aberdeen here to
remote oil rigs in the middle of the North Sea. After all, Aberdeen is Britain’s
oil capital, and because of this, the airport here actually holds the
title of the world’s busiest heliport, an indication of just how much the
oil industry is booming in this city. Oil was discovered in the North
Sea off Aberdeen in 1969 – and since then it’s formed a core part of the city’s economy – replacing historic shipbuilding
and fishing as a leading local industry. Helicopters may provide a quick link for
a few people to reach remote offshore oil rigs as far as 200 miles away, but the main
connections are provided by ships – ships which typically depart the city from the
modern harbour, which we find just here. Situated close to the mouth of the
River Dee, where the port’s story began, Aberdeen’s Harbour has been in
operation for just under 900 years, since 1136 – which some say makes it the
oldest operating business in Britain today. Of course, things look very different at the
harbour today – as huge ships pack tightly between the piers and quays built on reclaimed
land, and while many are indeed closely associated with the city’s oil industry, you’ll also
find a variety of huge freight vessels, and even passenger ferries – Aberdeen’s
harbour serving as the main gateway for people travelling to the Orkney and Shetland
Islands, the most northerly islands in Scotland. But, crowding around the vast modern
harbour, are a small network of streets which tell us of its past – and just
here, we find the gorgeous Shiprow, one of the oldest streets in Aberdeen,
dating all the way back to the year 1281. Decorated with some beautifully colourful
umbrellas, Shiprow is now home to a couple of pubs and bars, but once upon a time it was
the main entrance to the burgh of New Aberdeen, linking the harbour with the
markets up at the Castlegate. For that reason, local business owners packed
tightly around the street’s path – hoping to deal with all of the merchants that
came into the city from overseas. The buildings that we’re passing between
now are a collection of granite warehouses and port buildings mostly of the 19th
century, although among the stonework of a number of addresses along this
street – you may stumble across some much older remains of the city’s medieval
warehouses, some as old as the 14th century. Just up here on the left, meanwhile, there
stands the former Trinity Congregational Church, a late 19th-century church which now forms
part of Aberdeen’s popular Maritime Museum, rightfully placed just a
stone’s throw from the harbour. On that theme, in front of the church
there also stands this sculpture of 2018, Aberdeen’s Fishing Industry Memorial, which
serves to recognize the men and women who have worked in the city’s fishing industry through
the centuries – often contending with harsh, and at times life-threatening
conditions while working out at sea. As we mentioned earlier, Aberdeen was Scotland’s
leading white fish port towards the end of the Victorian era, but the industry had been
present here for almost as long as Aberdeen has existed – though for most of history, local
fishing was focused mainly on river and salmon fishing, and it was only in the 19th century
that deep-sea fishing, as well as whaling, became a major part of the city’s economy. That’s one of many stories told
inside the city’s maritime museum, but just next door to it there
stands another of Aberdeen’s oldest buildings – Provost Ross’s House,
which was built all the way back in 1593. Slightly smaller and younger
than Provost Skene’s House, which we saw earlier, this house was named
after yet another Provost of Aberdeen, John Ross, who lived here in the
early years of the 18th century. Today, it’s part of the Maritime Museum –
but it serves as a vivid reminder of what Shiprow looked like back in the period when
it served as the main entrance to Aberdeen, for those climbing the hill from
the harbour up to the Castlegate.
And here, we can once again see the grand
tower of Aberdeen Town House soaring above the buildings of the Castlegate, the place where
we began our walk more than 45 minutes ago, and the place where we’ll reach its
end in just a couple of minutes’ time. But of course, we now know just
how this central part of modern Aberdeen functioned back in the days
when it was home to a bustling market, and even a great castle – closely linked with
the harbour which stood just a few steps away. Over time, the centre of activity in Aberdeen
has spread outwards as Union Street helped the city to expand beyond its historic geographic
boundaries, and so we now have great city landmarks like the mighty Town House, complete
with that distinctive, often sparkling silver granite look, standing as symbols of all that
Aberdeen has been through in its history. Those ups and downs have forged a prosperous
modern city filled with local pride, and it’s a pride that extends to every corner of
Aberdeen, from its most recognizable landmarks, to some of the hidden gems that
we’ve found on the city streets, whether that be the frightening Russel
Head, Kelly’s Cats on Union Bridge, or even a small old well just here
in the heart of the Castlegate. This is known as the Mannie Well, a historic piece of Aberdeen that was
built more than 300 years ago in 1708. Topped by a much-loved local sculpture of
the Mannie, uncharacteristically made of lead rather than local granite, throughout
history this well has been on just as much of a tour of Aberdeen as we have today, it’s
stood at the other side of the Castlegate, on The Green, and here in
the shadow of the Town House. At this point, the road is not known as Union
Street, but rather Castle Street – an older thoroughfare that once provided a direct approach
to the gates of the medieval Aberdeen Castle, and standing either side of it you’ll find famous
local pubs, including Old Blackfriars just here. Another of the city’s oldest taverns, Old Blackfriars takes its name from the
fact that a monastery, known as Blackfriars, once stood roughly on the same spot – just
beside the heart of the action in Aberdeen, where the castle overlooked the square
where not just markets took place, but also gruesome public executions for those
who had been locked up inside the old Tolbooth. That’s one of countless more stories to
be discovered on a visit to Aberdeen, a city that we’ve barely just
scratched the surface of, despite having walked its streets
for nearly 50 minutes now. But sadly, having returned to the
Castlegate – where we began our walk – it’s here that our tour
of Aberdeen has reached its end. Thank you so much for watching this video, I
really hope you enjoyed it – and I hope you’re now looking forward to making your own trip to
the great Granite City of Aberdeen sometime soon!
25 Comments
It does surprise a lot of people when I take tourists around .
Born and bread in the Granite city
Still the beach to see,and at the west end of Union Street, you have Albyn and Queens road lovely buildings.
Thank you so much for your new tour! My husband and me love to travel with you a lot.
Happy you are back !
If you are ever near East Sussex, please check out the gorgeous town of Rye. 🥺 🙏
I really enjoyed this walk through the center of Aberdeen, a beautiful city that I hope I'll have the chance to visit one day !
Love to see more scotland videos, what about oban? And ayr?
Fabulous video! Many thanks xx
Beautiful video with alot of Information ❤️👍🏻
Good video.
One thing you get (predictably) wrong however, is the origin of the city and the name Aberdeen.
The original settlement was closest to the mouth of the Den Burn, beneath today's harbour, and the name means 'Confluence of the Den'.
You correctly mention Old Aberdeen as originally seperate burgh, but this is neither the oldest nor the original source of 'Aberdeen', which is actually the confusingly-labelled 'New Aberdeen', evolving around the Den Burn, the Green and the Castlegate.
Old Aberdeen, more accurately 'Aberdon', being around the mouth of the Don, and as a seperate burgh, only became part of the evolving City of Aberdeen about 1891.
Hope this helps!
its pronounced mari-schol ye numty
we still have two rival unis english bastard
CUH-LUH-DEN????
Wonderful! I love your channel!
I would love a pdf map of this walk!
Beautiful city
Aberdeen's council all racist plonker work there 😂 i saw a black guy had 25 years to get a house😢
Fabulous tour of Aberdeen! It’s a very beautiful city and I loved seeing the variety of architecture and the mix of old and new buildings!
Very underrated city! If this was in Southern England people would be raving about it!
love it! deadly walking tour! thanks!
I love it how even after living there for 25 years I learned so much!
Wee mistake I'm afraid Lord Byron actually attended Aberdeen Grammar School who's original building was located directly opposite Robert Gordons .
How far the airport to the city centre
Thank you so much for this. You made my city look beautiful. Folks, please visit us. There is much much more to see and we are lovely. Really.
7:45 We always hear about 'The Scottish wars of Independence' – Please remember that Scotland was a State, a Nation, a country – BEFORE England even existed. The kindom of Scotland formed in AD 846, – England came in to being around AD 920.
Absolutely love your channel The very best indeed!!!!!! Keep on all the good work forever!!!! Amazing narration & fab/relevant information throughout