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Places to visit
in Aberdeenshire.

It’s 01:14 in Aberdeenshire.
Aberdeenshire

Castle country by the North Sea.

Aberdeenshire runs from the granite city of Aberdeen up the Dee into the Cairngorms, and round a coast of cliffs and fishing villages. It's known as castle country, with more castles to the acre than anywhere else in Britain, and its fields hide a kind of stone circle found nowhere else. Royal Deeside has the pinewoods and the hills, while the north coast has villages tucked in at the foot of the cliffs. Allow time for the long roads between them. These are the places we think are most worth your time.

CastlesBeachesWaterfallsDistilleriesMuseumsGalleriesGardensLighthouses
Did you know1 hour ago

The railway to Ballater, on Royal Deeside, was meant to run on to Braemar until the royal family objected.

The line reached Ballater in 1866 and was planned to continue up the valley, but the royals did not want it near Balmoral, so it stopped here and they stepped off the train at Ballater instead. The station was painted black and gold for Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in 1896. The line itself closed in 1966.

See Ballater · Aberdeenshire
Place of the day51 minutes ago

Lewis Grassic Gibbon Centre.

A small centre and café at Arbuthnott in the Mearns, celebrating Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the novelist of Sunset Song, in the countryside where the book is set.

Read about it
From our archive40 minutes agoAberdeenshireBalmoral CairnsAberdeenshireCraigievar CastleAberdeenshireCrathes CastleAberdeenshireCrathie KirkAberdeenshireCrovieAberdeenJohnston Gardens

Aberdeenshire this autumn, in our photographs.

Six places in Aberdeenshire, each as we found it.

Read the guide
Places to visit28 minutes ago

St Cyrus National Nature Reserve.

A national nature reserve of dunes, flowery grassland and a long sandy beach below inland cliffs at St Cyrus, north of Montrose, one of the richest reserves in Britain.

See the place
From our guide17 minutes ago

Braemar Castle.

A recent restoration marks a new chapter in the castle’s absorbing 400-year-old history. The Earl of Mar built its soaring battlements way back in 1628, and since then it’s spent time as everything from a garrison to a family home.

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From the magazine5 minutes agoThe printed copy of Issue 06Issue 06Spring / Summer 2023

In 1969 the engraver Malcolm Appleby bought the old Victorian railway station at Crathes, near Banchory, for 1,600 pounds, seven shillings and four pence.

Malcolm, a silversmith and engraver from a Kent suburb, first came north on a travel scholarship in 1964, hitchhiking to Orkney with his brother through March gales instead of going abroad. He kept thumbing lifts to Scotland after that, because 'it was where the inspiration was'. At Crathes he lived and worked in the station for 27 years, leaving the building largely in its original state. In 1996 he moved to Grandtully in Perthshire, where Scots pine, wildflowers, fungi, chestnuts and acorns inspire his work. His commissions have included engraving the orb of the Investiture crown of the Prince of Wales in 1969, and a silver-gilt, rock crystal and enamel cup and cover for the National Museum of Scotland.

Read the full story in Issue 06
Places to visitJust now

River North Esk.

Stretching 47 kilometres from Scotland’s eastern coast, just north of Montrose, to the Water of Lee in the Cairngorms

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From Issue 9 of Hidden Scotland magazineIssue 9Just now

Braemar Castle

How the people of Braemar saved their castle, built by the Earl of Mar in 1628, taking it on in 2007 and reopening it in 2024 after a £1.6 million restoration.

Read the story
From our guideJust now

East Aquhorthies Stone Circle.

Northeast Scotland is the only place you’ll find recumbent stone circles – where a large monolith has been laid on its side, flanked by two upright stones – and this site is one of the finest of the lot. It’s thought to have been built some 4,000 years ago and, fascinatingly, some of the stones appear to have been selected for their reddish colour.

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Places to visitJust now

Poldullie Bridge.

A high single-arched bridge of 1715 over the River Don in Strathdon, built by John Forbes of Inverernan just before he rode out for the Jacobites.

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In AberdeenshireJust now

The Clunie Dining Room at the Fife Arms in Braemar has won Best Eating Experience at the Aberdeen City and Shire Thistle Awards.

The restaurant cooks over an open fire with local and seasonal ingredients. The awards were presented at the Chester Hotel in Aberdeen on 18 September.

See The Fife Arms · Aberdeenshire
From our archiveJust now

Stravaig Saunas, Aberdeenshire.

A wood-fired timber sauna on a hillside in Royal Deeside, near Ballater, with hour-long sessions and a view over the Dee valley, made by a local joinery firm.

See the place

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