Aberdeen - a rough guide

Aberdeen in North East Scotland, lies between the rivers Dee and Don. The valley of the Dee, is famouse for its Royal connections and its salmon fishing and reaches west to the foothills of the Grampian Mountains. Beautiful countryside borders the city to the north and south, and to the east there are miles of beaches and unspoilt coastline.

Aberdeen's success was established on the time-honoured trades of agriculture, fishing, food processing, textiles and papermaking. For all its scope and modernity, though, retains the feel of a far smaller town.

Aberdeen is famous for an architectural skyline that's commanded by graceful granite buildings, a lot of which have an ancient history. Beautifully restored houses on the cobbbled streets date back to the 17th century.

The University of Aberdeen is a combination of Kings College and Marischal College. Nowadays, its 14,000 students study in a range of grand buildings, many of which are in the Old Aberdeen area. More recently, Robert Gordon university was formed and has many buildings thoughout the city, the main campus sites being in Garthdee and Schoolhill.

One of the most dramatic parks is Duthie Park, home to the famous Winter Gardens. Throughout the wider region are gardens renowned for their beauty, such as the celebrated formal garden at Pitmedden and the beautiful walled gardens at Drum Castle and Crathes Castle.

Within Aberdeenshire itself, there are a lot of great castles to be explored. Aberdeenshire is also home to over half of the whisky distilleries in Scotland and offers a Whisky trail, as well it might!.

Oil and gas exploration had a major impact on the economy of Aberdeencreating economic stability, jobs and inward investment and development, and resulted in the formation of exceedingly efficient services and facilities.

In recent times, the oil industry, though still of huge importance to Aberdeen, is being topped up by the development of a diverse array of additional sectors: Aberdeen boasts 30% of the software engineers in Scotland, for example.

Mindful of the need not to depend too heavily on the offshore oil and gas industry to assure its future, the Aberdeen business sector, supported by local government and assorted partners, such as Scottish Enterprise Grampian,Aberdeen has put into place development programs to ensure the city's economic future. The Aberdeen Science and Technology Parkhas biotechnology centres and software houses, and the Aberdeen Science & Energy Park, offering centres for the development of Modern technologies for use in the oil and gas industry, are simply two instances of the facilities that have pulled in major new inward investment.