I love Aberdeen! Itās a bit of a marmite city, I know. The most common negatives I hear are that itās ugly, itās unfriendly and thereās nothing to do and I would disagree (and frequently do) on all of those points. I get surprisingly defensive of this city that is absolutely not my own, as in I didnāt grow up here and I havenāt lived here that long!
Now, having said that, when I came up here to meet my now supervisors, I flew and then took the bus into the city from the airport. The stretch of Aberdeen that bus route follows is mostly pretty bleak and as soon as I could I phoned my mum all teary that I didnāt think I could live here. My memory of Aberdeen from my navy days was really shoddy, I remembered bits of the harbour, the maritime museum and the beach but that was it. It wasnāt enough to make me feel better about moving here. Luckily though, I stayed at the Carmelite hotel near The Green and the harbour and walked to the university through old Aberdeen and the Cruickshank botanical gardens. This turned things around an awful lot. I mean, obviously! I live here now and as I said I love it. Now, if my friends fly up I tell them to close their eyes on the bus! When theyāre here, at some point in their stay, I take almost everyone on the same walkā¦or at least portions of it, because altogether itās a long one. As lockdown has now eased a little and we have some more freedom to move around I thought it seemed a good time to mention my favourite places along that walk. Maybe itāll give you some inspiration.
Old Aberdeen
The ātourā starts with a solid walk from Mounthooly (because thatās where I live) to Old Aberdeen and that takes about 20 ā 30 minutes. I found out very recently that Mounthooly lies on an old leper colony, which was mercifully unnecessary by the early 1600s. Luckily, the bodies werenāt buried along my street so I didnāt have to lie awake at night thinking about that for too long! The first stop on my tour is what remains of the āSnow Kirkā which was originally founded way back in 1497. This is a tiny little Catholic graveyard hidden behind high walls within college bounds. For me, the most exciting thing about this is that barely anyone seems to know itās there! I donāt really know the ins and out of the reformation but I do know that it wasnāt a great time to be a practicing Catholic. Many held Mass secretly and buried their loved ones in secret Catholic kirkyards in keeping with their faith. The Snow Kirk, or the kirkyard of St Mary of the Snows, was, for a time, one such secret graveyard.
From the kirkyard I take people through Powis gate, which looks like a classic Disney castle tower and towards Kings College. Kings College was founded by William Elphinstone in 1494 and thereās a fetching memorial to him outside. The interesting thing, I think, is that the memorial was meant to be fitted on top of his tomb, inside the chapel. But, when it was transported to Aberdeen it turned out to be too big to go through the door. Doh!
Just up the road from Elphinstone is my favourite university campus cafĆ©, Kilau. Great coffee, great food, magnificent brownies! This place on my āgrand routeā is a great time to stop so I normally encourage it!
Sometimes, I take people through the alleyway near Kilau to go and look at the library. Itās pretty impressive and although I rarely take people inside it has a cool internal structure too. I gather there are some mixed opinions about the practicality of this though! Another rare but occasional detour is the Cruickshank botanical garden and rarer still the universities zoology museum. Both are definitely worth a visit though. The gardens are a nice spot for a picnic, I saw my first red squirrel and my first waxwings here.
Seaton Park and the River Don
This next stretch is again about 20 ā 30 minutesā¦obviously much longer with stopping for coffees, taking photos or just generally looking at stuff!
The next āstopā is St Machar Cathedral. To get there you have to walk down the Chanonry. This is a pretty area but it was once terrorised by āSpring-heeled Jackā. āSpring-heeled Jackā could silently leap over high walls and breathed fire. He had clawed hands and red eyes and wore numerous disguises. This assailant normally resided in London but appeared in Aberdeen in the late 1800s. People saw him well into the 20th century. Crazy!
When I first arrived, I read on the internet somewhere that the left upper quarter of William Wallace was rumoured to be buried behind a star in St Machar cathedral. Iād tell my friends this in my best impression of a castle tour guideās ghost story voice but just at the beginning of this year I found out that was certainly not true. Damn internet facts! Despite the lack of famous historical body parts the cathedral is still worth a visit. The ceiling in particular is pretty astounding.
Just behind St Machar is the enormous Seaton Park. There are areas here where I feel like I am absolutely not in a city anymore. The walk along the river to the beach is really lovely, Iāve seen seals from the Brig oā Balgownie and although I havenāt seen them here personally, people have reported really good views of otters.
After Seaton Park is left behind (and Iāve taken my friends across a super busy road) the Donmouth nature reserve starts. There are some little paths that wind through the estuary and thereās a small hide just off the road. If Iām honest I find this section a little disappointing but without it itās a long stretch of boring pavement until you reach the sea.
Aberdeen Seafront
I donāt have an awful lot to say about the seafront. I mean, itās just nice to be by the sea, isnāt it? Between Donmouth and the Aberdeen Beach Ballroom itās just you and the sand but after that thereās one or two things I sometimes point out. The first thing is āthe last tram lineā which is on the Links between the Hilton hotel and the beach thereās a little stretch of tram line still visible. I normally point at them and say āthatās Aberdeenās last tram lineā. Thatās it! Thatās all I have. Iām pretty sure no one but me has ever thought this was cool. But Iāll keep trying!
Just as a little interlude (because Iāve never taken anyone here), thereās a place nearby called Trinity Cemetery. Within it is the unmarked grave of the Cornish steersman and quartermaster, Robert Hichens, who was on the Titanic. Iāve read somewhere that at the time of the accident he was at the helmā¦of course steering under the orders of an officer. He survived in one of the few lifeboats alongside an American millionairess, but life wasnāt particularly rosy for him following the tragedy and ended with him being placed in an Aberdonian cemetery without a marker.
Incidentally this cemetery is very near Gallows Hill, which, as you can probably guess is where people enjoyed watching the odd hanging up until the late 1700s. The last fellow to lose his life there was Alexander Morison, who murdered his wife with an axe. The death wasnāt quick or clean and he was left there hanging in chains as a warning. If you havenāt noticed by now Iām drawn to some of the darker parts of history!
But anyway, back to āthe tourā! Carrying on down the Beach Boulevard from the Beach Ballroom there are some shops and cafĆ©s plus adventure golf and a funfair. But, for me, the place of note is the Highland Bus. Again, I donāt have any pictures but itās an old double decker bus by the sea with a cafĆ© in it! I mostly just really like the novelty but the foodās pretty good too.
Footdee
After tea and cake in the bus, the next stop is Footdee. Footdee, pronounced āFittieā, is about a 20-30 minute walk from Donmouth along the beach. Footdee is a really pretty old fishing village full of little cottages that surround squares mostly containing āshedsā and garden areas. I put āshedsā in apostrophes because this doesnāt quite do them justice, theyāre very cool and very creative. The whole area has a really folksy, arty vibe. I think itās important to remember that people do actually live here though. Itās great to enjoy the space but with the respect owed to any residential area.
One of my favourite stories relating to Footdee is that, at some point in time, when the fishermen went out to sea their wives would not wash any clothes. They feared that by churning up the wash water they would also churn up the sea causing potentially fatally bad weather for their husbands. I think I read that at the Aberdeen maritime museum, which is just along the harbour and definitely worth a visit. Ā
Aberdeen Harbour
From Footdee I like to walk along the harbour all the way towards Union Square, which takes about 20 minutes. Aberdeen Harbour is apparently Britainās oldest recorded business, first being mentioned way back in 1136. These days itās full of standby and supply vessels from the oil fields and the odd ferry. Ā A lot of this is about reminiscing for meā¦I mean, I really didnāt enjoy the navy but I like to think about it sometimes and, objectively, I still find the ships, the big anchors and huge chains pretty cool. I always hope my friends will too! I also love some of the shipās names: āStandard Vikingā is among my favourites. As you get closer to Union Square thereās also a very cool Nuart painting. Nuart is all over Aberdeen but this, I think, is the first one featured along this walk. Ā
The Green
Just before reaching Union Square I turn off and head into āThe Greenā. Thereās not a huge amount I have to say about this area but there is some great Nuart around, including my favourite, the doughnuts. Thereās also a fab little cafĆ© called Contour cafĆ© here and a great pub called CASC, which sells good coffee, ale, Scotch whisky and cigars.Ā Ā Ā
Home
From The Green there are a couple of options. Not far away are a couple of my favourite pubs, Fierce beer and the Castlegate Brewdog, enough said. If weāre not ready for a drink and my friends arenāt ready to kill me after a brutally extensive ātourā thereās the Tollbooth museum. I love this place, which, like the maritime museum is free. The Tollbooth is an incredibly well preserved 17th century gaol and has loads of sweet information about the evolution of the city, witches, the people that were gaoled there and escape attempts. If my friends werenāt ready to go home before, they almost definitely are after the museum. Home is passed another Brewdog and along Gallowgate. Gallowgate was the execution site before Gallows Hill and Iāve read somewhere that it saw the end of multiple witches but I havenāt been able to find this information again since! Aberdeen has an incredibly rich (and terrible) witch hunting history that I really want to learn more about. Ā Ā
This ātourā is bloody long and it only covers a small part of what the city has to offer. Aberdeen is full of history, art, nature, good beer and although I agree itās pretty shite at advertising itself, itās normally full of cool events. I feel like people can give this Northern city a hard time but, although its not perfect, itās 100% worth a visit, or exploring more if youāre already here.
Most of this information is gathered from a couple of books and an extensive website, which Iāll mention below, and the rest of it is from who knows where! Theyāre just tidbits of information Iāve gathered from here and there and they may or may not be true! Iād reckon that those tidbits are from museums and castles Iāve visited but you know how those facts get skewed once youāve not touched on them for a while!
āHidden Aberdeen ā History on your doorstep and under your feetā by Dr Fiona-Jane Brown
āThe guide to mysterious Aberdeenā by Geoff Holder
The āDoric columnsā blog – https://doriccolumns.wordpress.com/
In A Kingdom By The Sea 