Footdee, the harbour mouth and Girdle Ness: the dolphins at the Torry Battery and the lighthouse

Aberdeen

Fittie to Girdle Ness – Fishing Squares, Lighthouse and Fort

A day on foot, from Aberdeen station and back.

The route

Aberdeen grew up round its harbour, and this day walks both sides of the harbour mouth, where the Dee meets the North Sea.

It starts at Footdee, which everyone in the city calls Fittie, the old fishing village of low cottages set round little squares at the very end of the quays. From there it's out along the North Pier beside the channel the ships use, then the long way round by the Victoria Bridge into Torry. On the far side a path rounds the headland to the lighthouse on Girdle Ness and looks over Nigg Bay, then comes back to the Torry Battery, an old gun fort where Aberdeen watches for its bottlenose dolphins. It's about 7.5 miles on foot, almost all of it flat, and the bus brings you back to the station.

The day

Harbour

A day on foot round the mouth of Aberdeen harbour, from the fishing squares of Fittie and the North Pier across the water to Torry. The afternoon rounds the headland to Girdle Ness lighthouse and Nigg Bay, then ends at the old gun battery where the dolphins are often seen, before the bus back into town. It starts from the station, about 7.5 miles in all.

Footdee
An attraction
It's a 28-minute walk from the station along the quays and York Street to Footdee, which everyone in Aberdeen calls Fittie. The city architect John Smith laid out its two squares of fishermen's cottages in 1808 and 1809, turned inward with their backs to the sea. The sheds and little gardens between them are people's own, so walk through quietly and keep out of the yards. At its harbour end on Pocra Quay stands the Roundhouse of the 1790s, which watched the ships into port until 2006.
More about Footdee
About 3 min on foot
The North Pier
Three minutes round from Fittie, a gate beside the Marine Operations Centre leads out along the North Pier, open to the public again since 2025 after decades shut. John Smeaton built its first stretch between 1775 and 1781, and it runs beside the channel the ships use, with the Torry Battery across the water. A dolphin sculpture from Harbour Energy stands on the pier; look for the real ones in the harbour mouth. It opens only in spring and summer: in 2026, from the end of March to the end of September. From October, look down the channel from Pocra Quay by the Roundhouse instead.
37 min on foot
Victoria Bridge
It's a 37-minute walk back along York Street, by Waterloo Quay and Regent Quay past the supply boats, and down Market Street, a few minutes from the station you set off from, to the Victoria Bridge. The Battery is only a few hundred metres from Fittie across the harbour mouth, but there's no way over the water there now. There used to be: the Torry ferry crossed from Pocra Quay, and on 5 April 1876 it overturned and 32 people drowned. The Victoria Bridge was built to replace it and opened in 1881.
40 min on foot
Girdle Ness Lighthouse
The 40-minute walk goes over the bridge and along Sinclair Road, past the oil bases where the fishing village of Old Torry stood until 1974, then out along Greyhope Road, closed to cars, with Fittie across the water. Pass the Battery for now and take the path beside the road round the headland to Girdle Ness lighthouse, which Robert Stevenson built in 1833 after the whaler Oscar was wrecked nearby. Beside it stands the old foghorn, the Torry Coo, which sounded over the city from 1902 until 1987.
3 min on foot
Nigg Bay
From the lighthouse, 3 minutes' walk brings you to the top of the steps on the south side of the headland, looking down over Nigg Bay. The bay is Aberdeen's South Harbour now, opened in 2023, and cruise ships call at its new quays. At the head of the bay stands the roofless kirk of St Fittick's, a church site since the 1100s. The road on round the bay is the way the cars come in, so walk back by the path.
15 min on foot
Torry Battery
An attraction
It's a 15-minute walk back by the footway and the path to the Torry Battery, built between 1857 and 1861 to guard the harbour and stood down in 1956. This is where Aberdeen watches for its bottlenose dolphins, often seen in the harbour mouth and easiest to spot on a flat sea. The Greyhope Bay café inside the walls, open Wednesday to Sunday, has big windows over the water. The bus is 20 minutes away, back along Greyhope Road and up St Fittick's Road to Finnan Brae.
More about Torry Battery

If it rains

Once over the bridge, the Battery is the one roof on the day. The Greyhope Bay centre inside its walls has big windows straight out over the harbour mouth, so in the wet you can watch for dolphins from under a roof, on the days it's open (Wednesday to Sunday at least). Fittie's squares are just as good in a drizzle. In a hard wind the pier will be shut, and the headland beyond the Battery is wild and bare: leave the lighthouse and Nigg Bay for a calmer day, and from the Battery walk 20 minutes back along Greyhope Road and up St Fittick's Road to Finnan Brae for the bus.