History
Aberdeen was a prosperous trading and fishing port centuries before oil became a valuable commodity. After the townspeople supported Robert the Bruce against the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the king rewarded the town with land for which he had previously received rent. The rental income was used to establish the Common Good Fund, to be spent on town amenities, a fund that survives to this day: it helped to finance Marischal College, the Central Library, the art gallery and the hospital, and also pays for the colourful floral displays that have won the city numerous awards.
The name Aberdeen is a combination of two Pictish-Gaelic words, aber and devana, meaning ‘the meeting of two waters’. The area was known to the Romans, and was raided by the Vikings when it was already an important port trading in wool, fish, hides and fur. By the 18th century paper- and rope-making, whaling and textile manufacture were the main industries, and in the 19th century it became a major herring-fishing centre.
Since the 1970s Aberdeen has been the main focus of the UK’s offshore oil industry, home to oil company offices, engineering yards, a bustling harbour filled with supply ships, and the world’s busiest civilian heliport. Unemployment rates, once among the highest in the country, are now among the lowest.
Aberdeen
Things to do
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