Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
roy, Trevor Sutton and Tim Ollivier. There are also several landscapes by Joan Eardley,
who lived in a cottage on the cliffs near Stonehaven in the 1950s and '60s and painted
tempestuous oils of the North Sea and poignant portraits of slum children. Among the Pre-
Raphaelite works upstairs, look out for the paintings by Aberdeen artist William Dyce
(1806-64), ranging from religious works to rural scenes.
MUSEUM
Marischal College & Museum
(
www.abdn.ac.uk/marischal_museum
;
Marischal College, Broad St; 10am-5pm Mon-
Fri, 2-5pm Sun)
Marischal College, founded in 1593 by the 5th Earl Marischal, merged
with King's College (founded 1495) in 1860 to create the modern University of Aberdeen.
The huge and impressive facade in Perpendicular Gothic style - unusual in having such
elaborate masonry hewn from notoriously hard-to-work granite - dates from 1906 and is
the world's second-largest granite structure (after L'Escorial near Madrid). A recent
renovation project saw the facade returned to it original silvery grey glory, and the build-
ing now houses Aberdeen City Council's new headquarters.
Founded in 1786, the
Marischal Museum
houses a fascinating collection of material
donated by graduates and friends of the university over the centuries. In one room, the his-
tory of northeastern Scotland is depicted through its myths, customs, famous people, ar-
chitecture and trade. The other gallery gives an anthropological overview of the world, in-
corporating objects from vastly different cultures, arranged thematically (Polynesian
wooden masks alongside gas masks and so on). There are the usual Victorian curios, an
Inuit kayak found in the local river estuary in the 18th century and Inuit objects collected
by whalers. At the time of research the museum was still closed to the public following
renovation work; check the website for notice of its reopening.
HISTORIC BUILDING
Provost Skene's House
(
www.aagm.co.uk
;
10am-5pm Mon-Sat)
Surrounded by concrete and glass office
blocks in what was once the worst slum in Aberdeen is this late-medieval turreted town
house occupied in the 17th century by the provost (the Scottish equivalent of a mayor) Sir
George Skene. It was also occupied for six weeks by the Duke of Cumberland on his way
to Culloden in 1746. The tempera ceiling of the Painted Gallery with its religious symbol-
ism, dating from 1622, is unusual for having survived the depredations of the Reforma-
