April in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire

April is when spring really arrives in the North East. The castles open their doors for the season, the seabirds come back to the cliffs, and the daffodils are out all over the city. Here’s what to look forward to in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire in April, year after year.

Many of the National Trust for Scotland’s Aberdeenshire castles open again at the start of April. Crathes Castle, near Banchory, is open every day through the summer, while Craigievar, Castle Fraser and Fyvie open on set days of the week, so check before you go. The gardens and grounds at several of them stay open all year, and spring is a lovely time to walk them. Over Easter, look out for egg trails for children at the castles.

Aberdeen Art Gallery on Schoolhill runs a free Easter trail for families, and the gallery itself is free to visit all year, with exhibitions that change through the seasons.

In spring the seabirds come back to the North East coast to nest. At RSPB Fowlsheugh, just south of Stonehaven, more than a hundred thousand guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars crowd onto the cliff ledges, and the colony is at its busiest from May into the summer. Further north, near Cruden Bay, the Bullers of Buchan is one of the best places in the area to see puffins, which arrive in spring and are gone again by the end of the summer. Go early in the morning or in the evening, and keep well back from the edge.

Every Saturday there’s a farmers’ market somewhere in Aberdeenshire. Huntly, Stonehaven and Peterhead hold theirs on the first Saturday of the month, Inverurie on the second, Banchory and Aberchirder on the third, and Ellon on the fourth. April is when Ballater’s market starts up for the season, on the fourth Saturday too, and in the city Aberdeen Country Fair fills Belmont Street on the last Saturday of the month.

Lighter evenings make April a good month to explore Aberdeen on foot. The council’s free heritage trails, among them the Old Aberdeen Trail and the Sculpture and Curios Trail, can be downloaded and followed at your own pace. For a guided walk, Invisible Cities runs a walking tour of Old Aberdeen that you can book ahead. The city centre is also full of street art from the Nuart festival, and its digital map will take you round the murals.

For something gentler, The Haven on Stonehaven’s Market Square is a not-for-profit wellbeing space with a yoga studio, a healing room, a mindful room and a community larder. It runs a timetable of classes and free drop-in groups, so have a look before you go, and take something for the larder if you can.