Northeast Scotland - The Rough Guide to Scotland - page 362

timber and wattle houses perched on three small hills, with the castle to the east and St
Nicholas Kirk outside the gates to the west.
It was here that Robert the Bruce sought refuge during the Scottish Wars of
Independence, leading to the garrison of the castle by Edward I and Balliol's
supporters. In a night-time raid in 1306, the townspeople attacked the garrison and
killed them all, an event commemorated by the city's motto “Bon Accord”, the
watchword for the night. he victory was not to last, however, and in 1337 Edward
III stormed the city, forcing its rebuilding on a grander scale. A century later Bishop
Elphinstone founded the Catholic university in the area north of town known today
as Old Aberdeen , while the rest of the city developed as a mercantile centre and
important port.
Industrial and economic expansion led to the Aberdeen New Streets Act in 1800,
setting off a hectic half-century of development that almost led to financial disaster.
Luckily, the city was rescued by a boom in trade: in the shipyards the construction of
Aberdeen clippers revolutionized sea transport, giving Britain supremacy in the China
tea trade, and in 1882 a group of local businessmen acquired a steam tugboat for trawl
fishing. Sail gave way to steam, and fisher families flooded in.
By the mid-twentieth century, Aberdeen's traditional industries were in decline, but
the discovery of oil in the North Sea transformed the place from a depressed port into a
boom town. his oil-borne prosperity may have served to mask the thinness of the
region's other wealth creators, but it has nonetheless allowed Aberdeen to hold its own
as a cultural and academic centre, and as a focus of the northeast's identity.

10

Union Street
he centre of Aberdeen is dominated by mile-long Union Street - still the grandest
and most ambitious single thoroughfare in Scotland. he challenge for the early
nineteenth-century city planners who conceived the street was the building of the
ambitious Union Street bridge , spanning two hills and the Denburn gorge. he first
attempt, a triple-span design by Glasgow architect David Hamilton, bankrupted the
city and collapsed during construction. he famous civil engineer homas Telford
then proposed the single-arch structure that became an engineering wonder of its age.
Since completion in 1805 the bridge has been widened twice, the second time, in
1963, adding a row of shops to the southern side that obscures the dramatic impact of
the structure.

Castlegate
Peacock Visual Arts: 21 Castle St • Tues-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm • Free • W www.peacockvisualarts.co.uk
Any exploration of the city centre should begin at the open, cobbled Castlegate , where
Aberdeen's long-gone castle once stood. At its centre is the late seventeenth-century
Mercat Cross , carved with a unique gallery of Stewart sovereigns alongside some fierce
gargoyles. Castlegate was once the focus of city life but nowadays seems rather lifeless
unless you dart along the easily missed lane to Peacock Visual Arts, a hub for the
northeast's contemporary art scene, which also hosts live music events.

The Tolbooth Museum
Castle Street • July-Sept Tues-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 12.30-3.30pm • Free • T 01224 621167
As Union Street begins you have to crane your neck to see the towering, turreted spire
of the Town House , though the steely grey nineteenth-century exterior is in fact a
facade behind which lurks the early seventeenth-century Tolbooth , one of the city's
oldest buildings. A jail for centuries, he Tolbooth now houses The Tolbooth Museum
of crime and imprisonment.