Town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Fraserburgh
A Scottish fishing port that once had a university, a lighthouse built inside a castle, and a tower nobody can explain.
Key information
- County
- Aberdeenshire
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- About 13,100 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Shellfish landings, Kinnaird Head lighthouse, the Wine Tower
- What locals are called
- Brochers
- Famous people
- Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth (founder)
- Football clubs
- Fraserburgh FC (Bellslea Park, Highland League)
About Fraserburgh
The town that tried to have its own university
Fraserburgh was founded as a planned town by Alexander Fraser of Philorth in the 1500s, on the north-east tip of Scotland where the coast turns from the North Sea towards the Moray Firth. He was not a man for small ideas. In 1592 he secured a royal charter from James VI to set up a university in the town. A principal was appointed and teaching began, but it never grew into a rival for Aberdeen or St Andrews. It faded away within a few years, after Fraser ran into financial and political trouble. The town he laid out survived rather better than the university. It took his family name, and locals still shorten it to something much friendlier.
Why everyone calls it the Broch
Ask for directions to Fraserburgh in the north-east and you may be told the way to the Broch. The name is simply the local Doric pronunciation of "burgh", worn smooth by centuries of use. People from the town are Brochers, and the nickname turns up everywhere, from the football club to the shops and the pub chat. Say it with a rolled, unhurried vowel and you will sound like you belong.
A lighthouse built inside a castle
On the headland at Kinnaird Head stands a 16th-century tower house that Alexander Fraser's family built around 1570. In 1787 it was turned into a lighthouse, the first on the Scottish mainland built by the Northern Lighthouse Board. Thomas Smith, the engineer who later worked with Robert Stevenson, Robert Louis Stevenson's grandfather, fitted the lamp straight into the old castle. The light kept shining until 1991. Today the site is home to the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, where you can see the great lenses and walk up to the lamp room of a lighthouse that is also a castle. A short walk away stands the Wine Tower, a small and puzzling 16th-century building with no ground-floor door and carved stonework inside. Nobody has ever settled what it was for.
Shellfish, herring and a hard-working harbour
The harbour is the heart of the Broch. In the 19th century the herring boom packed the quays with boats, barrels and the herring girls who gutted and packed the catch at astonishing speed. The great herring boom has passed, but the fishing hasn't. Fraserburgh is one of Europe's leading shellfish ports, with crab, lobster, langoustine and more landed here and sent across the continent. Fish suppers, fresh haddock and a warm buttery roll from the bakery are all part of everyday eating, and the sea is rarely far from the plate. The sea has also exacted its price. In January 1970 the town's lifeboat, the Duchess of Kent, capsized in heavy seas while on service. Five of the six crew died. The loss is still remembered here with enormous respect.
Football, beaches and a hill with a horse
Fraserburgh FC, the Broch, play at Bellslea Park in the Highland League and have been a force in north-east football since the club was founded in 1910. Home games are a proper community occasion. The town has a long sweep of sandy beach and a links golf course by the sea, and the wild dunes around Rattray Head are close by, with their own lighthouse standing offshore on the rocks. Inland, Mormond Hill is marked on its slope with a large white horse and a stag picked out in quartz stones. You can spot them from miles away, a very north-east piece of landscape art.