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Here you will find a few suggestions of some of the things to do or see in or around The Granite City.

Old Aberdeen
No visit to Aberdeen can prepare you for the delights of the area known as Old Aberdeen. Here is preserved the ancient dwellings and town plan of what was once a separate burgh. Don't miss King's College,the centre of Aberdeen University, an imposing four-square building erected around the famous Quadrangle. King's College Chapel, used for daily worship for five centuries, houses a collection of 15th century wood and ornamentation.

Enjoy a walk along the fine, old cobbled High Street. A word of advice: don't bring your car. This area is compact enough to walk around and anyway, parking is nearly impossible. Almost all the places of visitor interest –Art Gallery, Marischal College, Maritime Museum, shopping malls, Provost Skene's House, harbour and Union Street - are within easy walking distance of each other.

FLOWER POWER
The all-year-round warmth of the Winter Gardens in Duthie Gardens exists under two acres (one hectare) of glass, said to be the largest covered display in Europe. The Cruickshank Botanic Garden in Old Aberdeen, run by Aberdeen University, is another horticultural treasure while Seaton Park by the Don contains a magnificent formal garden (best seen from the slopes below St Machar’s Cathedral). Hazlehead contains the Queen Mother Rose Garden, one of the largest collection of variegated species anywhere.

FITTIE
Fittie (it appears as Footdee on the front of buses) is a charmingly-preserved fishing village at the mouth of the Dee. It ’s ended up the way it is entirely accidentally, and represents a microcosm of fishing life in times gone by. There are navigation lamps used to light doorways, ships in bottles in windows, and colourful sheds lining the middle of both village squares. Next to the beach are the poles from which nets were hung out to dry. Take a turn round Fittie, then walk 100m to the mouth of the river to watch the ships go by.

TORRY BATTERY
Girdleness Lighthouse guards the southern approach to the river Dee beyond the old fishing suburb of Torry. Up on the hill from it is Torry Battery, ancient defence site last used as a gunnery emplacement in World War II. It ’s well worth taking an hour out of a busy day to come here to see the view. Aberdeen explains itself to the eye – how the hills of old guarded Aberdeen and nurtured the basin of what has become an international harbour. Beyond are the spires of the modern city, with the ancient spires of Old Aberdeen in the distance.

COSMOPOLITAN CITY
Aberdeen is a prosperous city but wears its wealth conservatively. The range of places to eat and drink provides an immediate guide. Sample cuisine that is native North Sea or eastern and exotic. Sample cultural life in the restored Edwardian grandeur of His Majesty’s Theatre or catch the latest sounds in the lively and informal Lemon Tree. Some of the pubs entertain a flourishing following for folk music, while three national orchestras perform regularly in the Music Hall.

A TRINITY OF CATHEDRALS
Aberdeen is blessed by three cathedrals, separately serving the Christian faith but united in the excellence of their interiors. The outstanding feature of St Machar’s Cathedral (Presbyterian) in Old Aberdeen is the heraldic ceiling of 1520, fine not just by standards in Scotland but comparable to any in Europe. St Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in King Street also has some fine ceiling heraldry, but also boasts connections with the United States that are so strong that the youthful John F Kennedy was brought here to see for himself. St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Huntly Street is developing a growing heraldic display, one with great promise for the future.