Union Terrace Gardens, the Art Gallery and the Maritime Museum

Aberdeen

Aberdeen – a Play Park, a Gallery and an Oil Rig

A day.

The route

Aberdeen's city centre has a whole free family day in it, all on foot and easy with a buggy.

There's a new play area in the green hollow of Union Terrace Gardens and hands-on corners for children in the Art Gallery's grand rooms. Down by the harbour, a giant model of a North Sea oil platform rises through the middle of the Maritime Museum.

Before you go

Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
22 miles awayNorth Lodge and River CabinSleeps 6 StrachanCuttieshillockSleeps 6 StrachanGamekeeper’s CottageSleeps 6 StrachanNo 2 Steading Cottage at GlendyeSleeps 4

The day

Aberdeen

A run around in the gardens to begin, then a slow wander through the gallery and lunch, and the harbour's stories in the afternoon, a short walk downhill.

About five hours

Union Terrace Gardens
An attraction
Union Terrace Gardens are the green valley below Union Terrace, just off Union Street, and they reopened in 2022 after a big restoration with a new children's play area, updated toilets, lawns and plenty of seats. They're free. The nearest car parks for the day are Denburn, Bon Accord and Harriet Street, all paid, and the city centre is just as easy by bus or train. New accessible paths and lifts run down from street level beside the granite steps, though the ramps back up are long. Look up at Rosemount Viaduct while the children play: the library, St Mark's Church and His Majesty's Theatre stand in a row along it.
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4 min on foot
Aberdeen Art Gallery
An attraction
Aberdeen Art Gallery is a 4-minute walk up from the gardens to Schoolhill, where its doors open automatically. It's free, open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and on Sunday from 11am to 4pm, with a lift to every floor and level access to every room. Children have hands-on interactives in Galleries 7 and 18, and on the walls are Raeburn and Monet, Joan Eardley and the Scottish Colourists, round a galleried hall under an oval skylight. There's a Changing Places toilet on Level 2, and only assistance dogs come in.
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Art Gallery Café
Lunch
Lunch is in the gallery's own café, on the ground floor, with a second one up on Level 2. They serve from 10am to 4.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and from 11am to 3.30pm on Sunday, and the lift reaches both. If both are full, Cup on Little Belmont Street, three minutes' walk round the corner, is open every day and has a children's afternoon tea on its menu.
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About 8 min on foot
Aberdeen Maritime Museum
An attraction
The Aberdeen Maritime Museum is about eight minutes' walk downhill, on Shiprow, in Provost Ross's House of 1593 and an old church joined by a glass link. It's free, with the same hours as the gallery. A 9-metre model of the Murchison oil platform rises through the middle of the building, and there are ship models, a lighthouse lens and hands-on displays on Levels 1 and 2. A push-button door and a lift reach most floors, but parts of Provost Ross's House are up stairs only. Only assistance dogs come in. Then it's back up the hill to the car.
More about Aberdeen Maritime Museum