Westburn Park

Opened in 1901, it spreads over ten hectares of lawns and old trees along Westburn Road, with Victoria Park just across the street.

This is a park made for doing things rather than admiring flower beds. The Gilcomston Burn winds through it under little stone bridges, filling a shallow paddling pool that children splash about in on warm days. There are play parks, a skatepark and a BMX track, football pitches, basketball, indoor and outdoor tennis courts and a bowling green that has hosted British championships.

Look out, too, for an old Templars fountain of 1876, carved with temperance messages, and for the white columned front of Westburn House, designed in 1839 by Archibald Simpson, the architect of so much of granite Aberdeen. On a summer weekend the park fills with families, and in autumn the big trees turn gold.