Privacy and cookie settings

Essential cookies support sign-in, security and quiz progress. Optional advertising and analytics require your permission. You can use Fact Central without accepting them.

Optional advertising and tracking are off until a valid consent choice is available.

Useful when testing the site. This preference applies even when you are signed out and stays until you change it or clear browser data.

Read our privacy policy or contact us.
Fact Central
Sign in

County in Scotland

Aberdeenshire

Scotland's Crown Jewels once hid under a church floor here, Dracula took shape on its cliffs, and every Hogmanay a town swings fireballs down its High Street.

Key information

County
Aberdeenshire
Nation
Scotland
Population
about 264,000 (2022 Census)
Area
about 6,300 square kilometres
Known for
Castles, Royal Deeside and Balmoral, Peterhead's fishing fleet, Aberdeen Angus beef, the Doric dialect
Famous people
Robert William Thomson, George MacDonald, Field Marshal James Keith
Football clubs
Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Formartine United (Highland League and beyond)

About Aberdeenshire

The crown jewels under the church floor

In 1651 Oliver Cromwell's army was closing in, and Scotland's crown, sword and sceptre needed a hiding place. They were taken to Dunnottar Castle, a ruin-in-waiting on a sea-battered rock near Stonehaven. When the castle came under siege, the Honours were smuggled out, reputedly in a creel of seaweed, and buried at nearby Kinneff church. They stayed there until the monarchy was restored in 1660. Dunnottar is still one of the most dramatic sights in Scotland. Its ruined walls sit on a cliff with nothing but the North Sea behind them.

Castle country, with a royal address

Aberdeenshire has so many castles that there is a Scotland's Castle Trail linking them. Craigievar is a pink, turreted tower house. Crathes has painted ceilings. Fyvie keeps its grand towers, and Dunnottar clings to its rock. Then there is Balmoral, on Royal Deeside. Prince Albert bought it for Queen Victoria in 1852, and the royal family has holidayed there ever since. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral in September 2022. In early September the Braemar Gathering fills a Deeside field with caber tossing, hill racing and bagpipes. Royal guests regularly attend.

Fish, cattle and the bottom of the soup bowl

The coast is working country. Peterhead is the most easterly town on the Scottish mainland and one of Europe's biggest white-fish ports. Fraserburgh, further along, is a major shellfish harbour. Fraserburgh also has Kinnaird Head, where in 1787 the first lighthouse built by the Northern Lighthouse Board was lit. Its tower is now part of a lighthouse museum. Inland, farmers raise the famous Aberdeen Angus, a breed bred in the north-east of Scotland. Cullen gave the world cullen skink, a thick soup of smoked haddock, potato and onion. Along the coast, Portsoy has its own pink-green marble, which was used for fireplaces in Versailles.

A county that swings fire and speaks Doric

On Hogmanay, Stonehaven's Fireballs ceremony sees people march up the High Street whirling blazing wire balls on long cables over their heads. The fire is flung into the harbour at the end. Crowds line the street to watch. The north-east also has its own tongue. Doric is the local Scots dialect. A boy is a "loon", a girl is a "quine", and "fit" is what. Ask for directions and you might get an entire conversation in it. The area's ancient mark is just as local. Recumbent stone circles, with a huge stone laid on its side between two uprights, are found in north-east Scotland and almost nowhere else.

Dracula, prisoners and Pictish granite

Bram Stoker loved Cruden Bay and returned there for holidays. The ruins of Slains Castle, perched on the cliffs, are often linked with the atmosphere of Dracula. Nearby, the Bullers of Buchan is a collapsed sea cave where waves boom up through a rocky chasm. Peterhead Prison, once known as Scotland's toughest, now operates as a museum. Inland, the hill of Bennachie, with its summit Mither Tap, is a favourite local climb. To the west the land rises to the edge of the Cairngorms. The Highland League gives the football a distinct flavour. Fraserburgh and Huntly play in it. Peterhead left that league for the Scottish Football League in 2000 and now play in the SPFL. Fraserburgh have never been members of the Scottish Football League or SPFL.

Inventors, novelists and pedestrians

Stonehaven-born Robert William Thomson patented the pneumatic tyre in 1845, years before Dunlop. Huntly's George MacDonald became a Victorian fantasy writer who influenced C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Field Marshal James Keith, born at Inverugie near Peterhead in 1696, rose to command Frederick the Great's armies in Prussia. Another local oddity was Captain Robert Barclay Allardice, from Ury near Stonehaven, a famous long-distance walker who in 1809 completed a challenge of walking 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours.

Related articles

Report an error