Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
INFORMATION
Tourist o
ce
26 Wellmeadow
(April-June & Sept-Oct
Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sun 10.30am-3.30pm; July-Aug
Mon-Sat
Nov-March Mon-Sat 10am-4pm;
T
01250 872960,
W
perthshire.co.uk). Blairgowrie's friendly tourist o
ce
can
help with booking accommodation.
9.30am-5pm,
Sun
10.30am-3.30pm;
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Bridge of Cally Hotel
Six miles north of town on the
A93
T
01250 886231,
W
bridgeofcallyhotel.com.
A
welcoming roadside pub serving simple grub throughout
the day (steak and kidney pie £10.50), plus real ale by an
open fire.
Daily 10am-8.45pm.
Cargills
By the river on Lower Mill Street
T
01250
876735,
W
cargillsbistro.com
Popular bistro serving
inexpensive formal meals as well as civilized coffee and
cakes. The menu includes good vegetarian options such
as mushroom risotto (£11.90).
Daily 10.30am-9pm.
Heathpark House
Coupar Angus Road
T
01250
870700,
W
heathparkhouse.com
. Good, spacious
en-suite rooms at a Victorian house south of the town
centre
with
two acres of gardens. No children under the age
of 16.
£80
10
SHOPPING
Blairgowrie Farm Shop
14-16 Reform Street
T
01250 876528,
W
blairgowriefarmshop.co.uk.
Jams,
vegetables, organic breads and frozen meats are all for sale
at this well-stocked deli and farm shop.
Mon-Sat
8.30am-5.30pm.
Aberdeen
he third-largest city in Scotland,
ABERDEEN
, commonly known as the “Granite City”,
lies 120 miles northeast of Edinburgh on the banks of the rivers Dee and Don, smack
in the middle of the northeast coast. While some extol the many tones and colours of
Aberdeen's
granite
buildings, others see only uniform grey, and find the city grim and
cold: it lies on a latitude north of Moscow.
Since the 1970s,
oil
has made Aberdeen a hugely wealthy and self-confident place.
Despite (or perhaps because of ) this, it can seem a soulless city and sometimes it seems
to exist only as a departure point for the transient population of some ten to fifteen
thousand who live on the 130 oil platforms out at sea. hat said, Aberdeen's
architecture
is undeniably striking - a granite cityscape created in the nineteenth
century by three fine architects: Archibald Simpson and John Smith in the early years
of the century and, later, A. Marshall Mackenzie. Classical inspiration and Gothic
Revival styles predominate, giving grace to a material once thought of as only good
enough for tombs and paving stones. In addition, the urban
parks
are some of the most
beautiful in Britain.
Getting your bearings is easy enough, as Aberdeen divides neatly into five main
areas. he
city centre
, roughly bounded by Broad Street, Union Street, Schoolhill
and Union Terrace, features the opulent Marischal College, the colonnaded Art
Gallery with its fine collection, the burgeoning nightlife of Belmont Street, and
homes that pre-date Aberdeen's nineteenth-century town planning and have been
preserved as museums. Union Street leads west to the twin diversions of gentrified
shopping and raucous nightlife that defines the
West End
. To the south, the
harbour
still heaves with boats serving the fishing and oil industries, while north of the
centre lies attractive
Old Aberdeen
, a village neighbourhood presided over by King's
College and St Machar's Cathedral and influenced by the large student population.
he long sandy
beach
marks Aberdeen's eastern border, just a mile or so from the
heart of the city.
Brief history
In the twelfth century, Alexander I noted “Aberdon” as one of his principal towns, and
by the thirteenth century it had become a centre for
trade
and fishing, a jumble of
