Aberdeen

Granite Aberdeen – Marischal College, the Kirk and the Harbour

A day on foot, from Aberdeen station and back.

The route

Aberdeen is built of granite, and the best way to see it is a day on foot from the station.

It climbs first to Marischal College, a great grey front of spires on Broad Street, and to Provost Skene's House across the square, built in 1545. Then it's through the Castlegate, the old market square, into the kirkyard of the Mither Kirk and out along Union Street to Union Bridge and its leopards. Union Terrace Gardens and the free Art Gallery fill the middle of the day, with lunch. The afternoon drops down Belmont Street to the Green, one of the oldest corners of the town, and along to Shiprow and the Maritime Museum, whose top floor looks out over the supply boats in the harbour. It's about 2.5 miles, with a few steps, and it ends a short walk from the train.

The day

Granite

A day on foot round Aberdeen's granite centre, from the spires of Marischal College and one of the city's oldest houses along Union Street to the Art Gallery for lunch. The afternoon drops down Belmont Street to the old Green and on to the Maritime Museum, where the top-floor windows look out over a working harbour. It starts and ends at the station, about 2.5 miles in all.

Marischal College
An attraction
Marischal College is a 10-minute walk from the station, up Correction Wynd and along Upperkirkgate to Broad Street. Nothing in Aberdeen shows off its granite like it: a wall of grey pinnacles raised between 1893 and 1905, often called the second-largest granite building in the world. The council has its offices inside, so this is one to admire from the street. Cross to the steps of Marischal Square for the whole front, with Robert the Bruce on horseback below it.
More about Marischal College
About 2 min on foot
Provost Skene's House
Across Broad Street, 2 minutes away in Marischal Square, Provost Skene's House was built in 1545 and is one of the oldest houses in Aberdeen. It's free, and inside, more than a hundred people from the north-east have their stories told in ten themed displays, with a Hall of Heroes on the ground floor. The rooms upstairs are up winding stone stairs, under low ceilings. It opens Thursday to Monday from April to October. Out in the square, the sculptor Andy Scott's steel leopard is poised to spring.
About 4 min on foot
The Castlegate
The Castlegate, the old market square at the head of Union Street, is 4 minutes down Broad Street, and this year it's one to see on the way past. At its west end the Victorian Town House wraps round the steeple of the Tolbooth, the old jail, whose museum is shut for repairs. For now the whole square is being relaid: the Mercat Cross of 1686, with its Stuart kings and unicorn, stands behind fencing while it is restored, and the Gordon Highlander statue is away in store. The footways along its sides stay open.
About 6 min on foot
Kirk of St Nicholas
An attraction
Six minutes west along Union Street, a granite colonnade of 1829 leads into the kirkyard of St Nicholas, the Mither Kirk, as Aberdonians call it. The kirk itself opens only for events and open days, so this is a wander among the old stones, under its spire and long walls. The gates are locked at 4pm, which is why it comes in the morning.
More about Kirk of St Nicholas
About 3 min on foot
Union Street
An attraction
Union Bridge is 3 minutes further west along Union Street. Union Street, the Granite Mile, was built from 1801 on vaults and bridges over the old town, and this single granite arch of 1805 carries it across the Denburn valley. Along its north parapet sit the black cast leopards added in 1910, known to the whole city as Kelly's Cats. The street has been dug up for a new road of granite setts and wider pavements, so parts of it, the bridge's footways included, may still be fenced.
More about Union Street
2 min on foot
Union Terrace Gardens
An attraction
From the end of the bridge, a 2-minute walk along the walkway brings you into Union Terrace Gardens, the green valley below Union Terrace. Reopened in 2022 after a long restoration, it has new granite steps, glass pavilions for a coffee, and statues of William Wallace, Robert Burns and Edward VII round its edges. Look up to Rosemount Viaduct, where the Central Library, St Mark's Church and His Majesty's Theatre stand in a row, known locally as Education, Salvation and Damnation.
More about Union Terrace Gardens
About 4 min on foot
Aberdeen Art Gallery
An attraction
Up the steps at the gardens' north end, 4 minutes away on Schoolhill, is Aberdeen Art Gallery, free, and the place for lunch. The granite building of 1885 is by the same architect as Marischal College's front, and its copper-clad top floor came with the rebuild that reopened it in 2019. Look for Joan Eardley, Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon and Monet among its eighteen galleries, and the round Remembrance Hall. The café is on the ground floor and on level 2.
More about Aberdeen Art Gallery
5 min on foot
The Green
An attraction
The Green is a 5-minute walk away, down Belmont Street, the city's street of cafés and bars, then a few steps along Union Street and down the Back Wynd Stairs. This is one of the oldest corners of Aberdeen, a quarter of the medieval town, and from down here the granite walls of Union Street rise high above you. A new market hall is being built between the Green and Union Street, so expect hoardings at its east end.
More about The Green
About 5 min on foot
Aberdeen Maritime Museum
An attraction
Along Hadden Street, 5 minutes away on Shiprow, the Aberdeen Maritime Museum, free, is in Provost Ross's House of 1593 and an old church joined by a glass link. A 9-metre model of the Murchison oil platform rises through the middle, and the Aberdeen-built tea clipper Thermopylae has her model too. End on the top floor, where the windows look out over the harbour, then cross to Regent Quay for the supply boats. It's a fenced working port, seen from the pavement, and the station is 8 minutes away.
More about Aberdeen Maritime Museum

If it rains

The Art Gallery and the Maritime Museum are free and under a roof, and so is Provost Skene's House from April to October, Thursday to Monday. In the wet, give them longer and keep the Castlegate, the kirkyard and the gardens to a look on the way past. Lunch in the Art Gallery's café can be a long one, and the Maritime Museum's top floor looks out over the harbour and its supply boats without a step onto the quay.

Worth a detour

Footdee
An 18-minute walk on along the harbour, Footdee, which Aberdonians call Fittie, is the old fishing village at the harbour mouth, its cottages set round little squares. It has a day of its own with us, from Fittie round the harbour mouth to Torry and Girdle Ness, so from here it's a look and back: the station is about 25 minutes' walk away. People live in the squares, so walk through quietly.