City in Scotland
Aberdeen
Aberdeen's grey streets glitter because its buildings are made of granite, and the same stone paved London's Waterloo Bridge and Westminster's Terrace.
Key information
- County
- Aberdeenshire (historic county of Aberdeen)
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 224,000 (2022 Census)
- Known for
- Granite buildings, North Sea oil, two universities, Aberdeen Angus cattle
- What locals are called
- Aberdonians
- Famous people
- Annie Lennox, Denis Law, Mary Garden, Sir Alex Ferguson (manager of Aberdeen FC)
- Football clubs
- Aberdeen FC (the Dons)
About Aberdeen
The city that sparkles in the sun
Aberdeen is built largely from local grey granite, and in the right light, especially after rain, the mica flecks in the stone glint like silver. That is the origin of the nickname the Silver City with the Golden Sands, the golden sands being the long beach that runs along the city's seafront. The granite is so hard that it is famously difficult to carve, yet Aberdeen's quarries turned it into an export business. Stone from the area was used for the paving of London streets and for parts of Waterloo Bridge, the Thames Embankment and Terrace of the Houses of Parliament. Rubislaw Quarry, which supplied much of the city's stone, reached a depth of approximately 142 metres before closing in 1971, and today it is a vast water-filled hole. Marischal College, on Broad Street, is one of the largest granite buildings in the world and is the city's signature landmark, with a spiky Gothic frontage that looks more like a cathedral than a university building.
Three burghs, two universities, one very old city
Aberdeen received its royal charter from King William the Lion in the 12th century, and it grew as a trading port on the mouths of the Dee and the Don. For centuries, Old Aberdeen, with its cobbled streets around St Machar's Cathedral, was a separate burgh from the commercial city to the south. The university story is just as unusual. King's College was founded in 1495 and Marischal College in 1593. For more than two centuries Aberdeen had two universities, one in each part of town, until they merged in 1860 to form the University of Aberdeen. That gave a modest northern city a degree-granting tradition older than anything in England except Oxford and Cambridge. King's College Chapel has a distinctive stone crown tower, originally built in the early 1500s and rebuilt after its crown was destroyed in a storm in 1633.
How a fishing port became the oil capital
Aberdeen long lived off fish, shipbuilding and granite. It built famous clippers, including the Thermopylae in 1868, which was one of the fastest tea clippers ever launched. Footdee, known locally as Fittie, is a historic fishing village by the harbour mouth. Its present planned layout dates from 1809 and was designed to rehouse an existing fishing community, with tiny squared-off cottages and brightly decorated sheds. Then came the 1960s and 1970s, and oil and gas were found beneath the North Sea. Aberdeen became the supply base and engineering centre for the new industry, and companies, helicopters and workers arrived in their thousands. Aberdeen Heliport became one of the busiest civilian helicopter terminals in the world. The industry reshaped the city's economy, prices and skyline, and it earned the title Energy Capital of Europe. Aberdeen is now busy reinventing itself around offshore wind and the energy transition.
Up the Dons: football and the Fergie years
Aberdeen FC, nicknamed the Dons and playing in red at Pittodrie, achieved something extraordinary in 1983. Under Alex Ferguson, they beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the European Cup Winners' Cup final in Gothenburg and then added the UEFA Super Cup by beating Hamburg. Few Scottish clubs outside Glasgow have ever won in Europe. Ferguson also broke the Old Firm's grip on the Scottish league, winning the title in 1980, 1984 and 1985. Pittodrie, opened in 1899, is one of the oldest football grounds in Britain still in use by its original club, and it has a famous seafront location near the North Sea. The supporters are nicknamed the Red Army, and the ground sits a short walk from the beach.
Doric, butteries and Aberdeen Angus
People from Aberdeen are Aberdonians, and many speak Doric, the north-east Scots dialect. Instead of asking what, you ask fit; who is fa, and where is far. Doric has a strong literary tradition and is still widely heard in the city and the countryside around it. The local food is hearty. The buttery, known as a rowie, is a flat, salty, flaky roll that is much like a croissant that has been to the North Sea. Locals eat it warm, often with butter and jam. Aberdeen Angus beef, bred in the north-east of Scotland, is known worldwide, and fresh fish from the harbour is a local staple. One more quirk: the city has a reputation for winning Britain in Bloom competitions. Aberdeen has won the Scotland in Bloom award numerous times, and Duthie Park's Winter Gardens are among the largest indoor gardens in Europe.
Famous Aberdonians and the art of the city
Annie Lennox, born in Aberdeen in 1954, found global fame with Eurythmics and then as a solo star. Denis Law, the Manchester United forward who grew up in the city, is the only Scot to have won the Ballon d'Or, in 1964. Opera singer Mary Garden, born in Aberdeen in 1874, became a star in Paris and Chicago. The city's arts scene includes His Majesty's Theatre, an Edwardian theatre that opened in 1906, and the Aberdeen Art Gallery, which reopened in 2019 after a major redevelopment and holds work by Monet, Hepworth and Francis Bacon, among others. For a city of its size, Aberdeen has produced a remarkable number of firsts, from clipper ships to oil-industry innovation to a university system that has been educating students since the 15th century.