Aberdeen

Aberdeen's Nuart Walls – Street Art on Foot

A day on foot, from Aberdeen station and back.

The route

Since 2017 the Nuart festival has been handing Aberdeen's gable ends, back lanes and car parks to street artists from Lisbon to Glasgow, and more than sixty of their works stand in the city today.

This day on foot goes looking for them, and for the story behind each one. It starts at the station with Vhils' carving on Palmerston Road and HERA's twelve-storey girl above the harbour. Then it runs down Shiprow to the Green and up through the old lanes round Guestrow to Loch Street, Jopps Lane and Crooked Lane, with lunch on Belmont Street. The afternoon heads west to Union Row, where a unicorn made of rubbish and the Green Lady of Crathes share one short street, and ends by Holburn Junction with the Super Scurry, the city's gull as an action figure. It's about 5 miles, with a few steps and slopes, and the station is an 18-minute walk from the last wall.

The day

Nuart

A day on foot among Aberdeen's Nuart walls, from Vhils' carving behind Union Square and HERA's giant over the harbour to the old lanes round Guestrow and George Street. Lunch falls on Belmont Street, then the afternoon heads west by Union Row to Holburn Junction and the Super Scurry. It starts and ends at the station, about 5 miles in all.

Palmerston Road
It's a 10-minute walk from the station, round the back of Union Square, to Palmerston Road and one of the biggest names Nuart has brought to Aberdeen. Vhils, from Lisbon, doesn't paint walls: he drills and chisels into them. In 2019 he carved John Londragan, one of the Aberdonians who went to fight Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and an American brigader who fought beside him, from an old photograph. A minute further along, out and back, is Ken, the many-eyed character KMG, who grew up in the city, painted in 2021.
About 6 min on foot
The Keeper of Magic, Union Point
Six minutes along Commercial Quay is the NorthLink ferry terminal, and across from its entrance Union Point rises twelve floors over the harbour. HERA, the German painter who is half of Herakut, covered it in 2024 with a girl in a blue hooded cape holding a small unicorn, Scotland's national animal, with trees growing up from below. It's the largest wall Nuart Aberdeen has painted, and a return: Herakut's much-loved giant girl on the old Aberdeen Market came down with the building in 2022.
8 min on foot
Shiprow and Virginia Street
It's an 8-minute walk back along Market Street and up Shore Brae to Virginia Street, where the walls stand close together. On the side of the Ibis, James Klinge painted his wife with a finger to her lips in 2022, for the guests asleep inside, and came back in 2026 with a rapper's line spun into a spirograph. Martin Whatson's wall honours the granite quarrymen, SNIK's girl is hauled skywards by birds on a rope, and Alice Pasquini's young couple watch the ships from Shiprow.
6 min on foot
The Green
An attraction
The Green is 6 minutes' walk down Shiprow and along Hadden Street. The old market hall at its east end carried some of the festival's best-loved walls until it was knocked down in 2022, and a new market is going up behind the hoardings. Look up at the side of Primark for Smug's man and his dog, painted in 2019. Smug grew up in Australia and paints from Glasgow with nothing but spray cans, yet his walls look like photographs.
More about The Green
2 min on foot
Rennie's Wynd and Wapping Street
It's a 2-minute walk through Rennie's Wynd, a lane from the Green down to Wapping Street, where Trackie McLeod, a Glasgow artist who works on masculinity and growing up, lined the walls with words in 2026. Out on Wapping Street, Mahn Kloix painted a girl riding on a man's shoulders, and Niels Shoe Meulman's calligraffiti runs along beside the road. A minute south, Elisa Capdevila's woman sits at home by a painted window, shaped to match the granite windows round about.
12 min on foot
St Catherine's Wynd and Guestrow
The 12-minute walk goes along Denburn Road, through the underpass beneath the Trinity Centre, where HICKS painted twelve small landscapes in 2026, each labelled as a stock mural subject, like 'A Footballer'. Then go back along the Green and up the Correction Wynd steps to St Catherine's Wynd, for Dotmasters' Rude Kids stencils. On the Netherkirkgate, Carrie Reichardt's ceramic Everyday Heroes honours the women of the north-east, from forgotten doctors and scientists to Annie Lennox and Emeli Sandé. Look up on Guestrow for Isaac Cordal's cement men in suits, each alone on a tiny balcony.
9 min on foot
Loch Street and Jopps Lane
It's a 9-minute walk out along Flourmill Lane, past Eloise Gillow's painted women, and up by Broad Street and the Gallowgate to Loch Street, where CBloxx painted a face in the rock in 2024. Jopps Lane is a back lane beside a car park, and it holds three of the collection's best. Fintan Magee's figures stand on a broken wall, Robert Montgomery's poem runs white on black, and Elki's turntables sit beside the bagpiper he stencilled in the early 2000s.
5 min on foot
Crooked Lane
Crooked Lane is a 5-minute walk back down Loch Street, past Remi Rough's burst of bright geometry of 2026 on the Bon Accord Centre. This service lane of bins and loading bays behind the centre holds some of the busiest walls in the collection. Hama Woods' leopard, from the city's coat of arms, pads through a world of coloured blocks while two rats haul them into place on pulleys. In 2026 Molly Hankinson painted Dream of a Common Language here, after the poet Adrienne Rich.
5 min on foot
Belmont Street
An attraction
It's a 5-minute walk down Harriet Street, past M-City's stencils about the city's oil economy, and by Back Wynd to Belmont Street, the city's street of cafés and bars and the place for lunch. On Little Belmont Street, the poet known as The Writing Is On The Wall covered a whole house in poems for the 2026 festival. Alice Pasquini's second wall of 2017 is on Belmont Street, and Add Fuel, from Portugal, painted old Aberdeen tile patterns peeling away in layers on a gable that looks over the Denburn.
More about Belmont Street
About 12 min on foot
Chapel Street and Summer Street
Twelve minutes west, on Skene Street, v2K, an artist who lives in Aberdeen, painted Light Within the Darkness in 2026. Down Summer Street, HICKS painted a sweeping landscape in the manner of the British Romantics on the side of the Merkur casino. Along Little Chapel Street, high on a column of the Chapel Street multi-storey car park, The Rebel Bear, a Scottish street artist who keeps his name to himself, painted two lovers falling in an embrace.
3 min on foot
Union Row
It's a 3-minute walk back along Little Chapel Street and down Summer Street to Union Row, where the walls come thick and fast. Bordalo II built a unicorn out of bins, pipes and car parts on the side of Rustico. Nimi and RH74 painted the Green Lady of Crathes Castle in Aberdeen tartan, a tear on her cheek, and Milu Correch's masked women sleep back to back. Look up at Union Plaza for Ernest Zacharevic's giant child climbing the building, and round on Union Wynd for Helen Bur's young family.
13 min on foot
Holburn Junction and Willowbank Road
The day's last wall is a 13-minute walk away. Go by Bon Accord Terrace, where James Klinge spun rap lyrics into a second spirograph in 2026, and along Justice Mill Lane, past Ciarán Glöbel's painted verse about money, to Holburn Junction. Above it, Phlegm's quarrymen chisel away at giant granite pillars. Five minutes on down Holburn Street, on the corner of Willowbank Road, the day ends with the Super Scurry, Conzo and Glöbel's gull sold as a boxed action figure. The station is an 18-minute walk back by Bon Accord Street.

If it rains

Every wall is outdoors, and they read well enough in the wet, so waterproofs and good shoes keep most of the day going. In a real downpour, walk the morning's walls from Palmerston Road to Crooked Lane, then give the afternoon to Aberdeen Art Gallery on Schoolhill, 4 minutes from Crooked Lane and 2 from Belmont Street. It's free, with a café for a long lunch, and its collection runs from Joan Eardley to Barbara Hepworth. Belmont Street and Union Row are a short walk from its doors if the rain lifts.

Worth a detour

East North Street and Frederick Street
A 7-minute walk east by Peacock's Close and East North Street takes you to four more walls close together. On the Community Health and Care Village are Fanakapan's two smiling 3D balloons, one of them wearing 3D glasses, and Millo's line drawing of 2024; round the corner are Thiago Mazza's wall on Frederick Street and Jofre Oliveras' on Princes Street. Allow about 25 minutes there and back.
Whitehouse Street and Thistle Street
Go along Huntly Street and up Whitehouse Street, where Tamara Alves' wall and NeSpoon's thistle in lace, both of 2023, stand side by side. Then come back down and along Rose Street to Thistle Street for Escif's old Caledonian forest, and by Summer Street to Union Row. It adds about 10 minutes.

Take it with you

The day on your phone

One tap opens Google Maps with the day's stops in order, ready to follow on foot. Every stop is a short walk from the last. The link starts at Palmerston Road, the first stop: from the station it's a 10-minute walk round the back of Union Square. It ends at the Super Scurry, an 18-minute walk from the station, and passes the end of Crooked Lane at the foot of Loch Street.

Open the day in Google Maps

A code that opens the day in Google Maps On a computer? Point your phone's camera here to open the day on your phone.